Analysis of Carbon Impacts of the Sanya Bay Ecological Restoration Project

As global warming and the greenhouse effect become increasingly evident, and in response to the “Carbon Peak” and “Carbon Neutrality” policies, extensive research has been conducted on “blue carbon” sinks in marine and coastal zones. Due to their low cost and flexibility, hydro-eco coupled numerical modeling has emerged as a prominent method for studying carbon sequestration. This study employs a two-dimensional NPZD (Nutrient-Phytoplankton-Zooplankton-Detritus) framework coupled with tidal flow dynamics to analyze changes in flow fields, ecological benefits, and carbon sequestration effects before and after the restoration project in Sanya Bay. Additionally, the impact of planting seagrass seedlings near the artificial island on carbon sequestration is investigated. The seagrass restoration achieved approximately 0.57 Mg C sequestration within one month. The project has achieved remarkable benefits. According to different working condition examples, the annual carbon sink of the artificial island and the sand replenishment restoration has increased by 83.83 Mg compared with that before the restoration.