Connecting Arctic Regions through Blue Carbon Science

Blue carbon refers to the natural processes through which the ocean traps carbon. Understanding the role that marine life plays in the carbon cycle is a potentially innovative and important strategy for combatting climate change.

I will discuss my current blue carbon research in Alaska on whales and sea otters, and strategies I have learned through my Fulbright work in Norway to communicate blue carbon science to the public and policymakers.

Heidi Pearson is a Fulbright Scholar to Norway, working with UN Environment/GRID-Arendal, and an Associate Professor of Marine Biology at the University of Alaska Southeast. She earned her BS in Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, and Biology, from Duke University and her PhD in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences from Texas A&M University. Her research focuses on the behaviour, ecology, and conservation of marine mammals with an emphasis on cetaceans and sea otters.