TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A research team from National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) recently confirmed that “fecal particles” made by zooplankton can store large amounts of carbon dioxide in the deep sea, helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

According to a Monday (Sept. 23) press release, Professor Hung Ching-chang (洪慶章) from the Department of Oceanography, along with Professor Shih Yung-yen (施詠嚴) from Taiwan’s Naval Academy, formed a multinational research team to study Taiwan’s natural carbon sink capacity for the first time.

Hung said that compared to “green carbon” like trees, “blue carbon” is the largest carbon sink on Earth, per CNA. His team’s research found the true carbon removal experts are the vast amounts of plankton and their fecal matter.

Hung explained that light can penetrate about 150 meters below the sea surface, where marine phytoplankton perform photosynthesis to absorb carbon dioxide. They are consumed by zooplankton through the food chain, metabolized into pellets, and indirectly converted into particulate organic carbon.

This particulate sinks into the sediment, where it can be stored for centuries, acting as a "biological pump" for blue carbon.

Hung said Taiwan's annual carbon dioxide removal accounts for forest carbon sinks, marine sediment carbon sinks, and marine blue carbon are 21.5 million tons, 42.1 million tons, and 96.8 million tons, respectively. Marine carbon sinks alone account for 34.5% of Taiwan's removal of its 280 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. 

The team’s findings were published in the science journal Marine Pollution Bulletin this month.