Blue Carbon Reservoir of the Blue Planet

Dr. Abhijit Mitra, Associate Professor and former Head, Dept. of Marine Science, University of Calcutta (INDIA) has been active in the sphere of Oceanography since 1985. He obtained his Ph. D as NET qualified scholar in 1994. Since then he joined Calcutta Port Trust and WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature-India), in various capacities to carry out research programmes on environmental science, biodiversity conservation, climate change and carbon sequestration. Presently Dr. Mitra is serving as the advisor of Oceanography Division of Techno India University, Kolkata. He has to his credit about 274 scientific publications in various National and International journals, and 26 books of postgraduate standards. Dr. Mitra is presently the member of several committees like PACON International, IUCN, SIOS, Mangrove Society of India etc. and has successfully completed about 16 projects on biodiversity loss in fishery sector, coastal pollution, aquaculture, alternative livelihood, climate change and carbon sequestration. Dr. Mitra also visited as faculty member and invited speaker in several Universities of Singapore, Kenya, Oman and USA. In 2008 Dr. Mitra was invited as visiting fellow at University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, USA to deliver a series of lecture on Climate Change. Dr. Mitra also successfully guided 22 Ph.D students. Presently his research areas include environmental science, mangrove ecology, sustainable aquaculture, alternative livelihood, climate change and carbon sequestration. Dr. Sufia Zaman, presently serving as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Oceanography in Techno India University (Kolkata) started her career in the field of Marine Science since 2001. She worked in the rigorous region of Indian Sundarbans and has wide range of experience in exploring the floral and faunal diversity of Sundarbans. She has published 1 book on carbon sequestration, 45 scientific papers and contributed chapters in several books on biodiversity, environmental science, aquaculture and livelihood development. Dr. Zaman is presently a member of Fisheries Society of India. She is also running projects on carbon sequestration by mangroves of Indian Sundarbans. She is the recipient of DST Women Scientist and Jawaharlal Memorial Doctoral fellowship awards. Her areas of research include aquaculture, fish nutrition, phytoplankton diversity, climate change and mangrove ecology. Dr. Zaman is also the first researcher in the maritime state of West Bengal (India), who initiated trial experiments on iron fertilization and subsequent enhancement of primary (phytoplankton) and secondary (fish) productions in the brackish water ponds of Indian Sundarbans with the financial assistance of Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

• Chapter 1: The Blue Zone of the Planet Earth.- Chapter 2: Biodiversity of the Blue Zone.- Chapter 3: Blue Carbon Assessment.- Chapter 4: Blue Carbon in Floral Community.- Chapter 5: Phytoplankton Carbon Stock.- Chapter 6: Blue Carbon in Faunal Community.- Chapter 7: Threats to Blue Carbon Reservoir.- Chapter 8: Road Map to Expand Blue Carbon Reservoir.