Leveraging drones with robust Data Collection for Cost-Effective and scalable remote Marine Carbon Removal benchmarking

By Brian Von Herzen
Climate Foundation
Norway
EcologyEarth ScienceGrant: Phase II: Bezos Earth Fund $1M Greenhouse Gas Removal Ideation Prize
$50,000
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About This Project

Accurate seaweed biomass estimation is a major barrier to scaling marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR). We propose an innovative, cost-effective method integrating nature inspired solutions with aerial drone imagery with biomass and sediment data to precisely measure daily growth and mCDR. This approach overcomes monitoring challenges, including costs and accuracy, making mCDR scalable, feasible and reliable. Publicly available benchmarks accelerate technology adoption to combat climate change.

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What is the context of this research?

Ocean stratification over the past 60 years has caused significant declines in kelp forests and oceanic primary production. Seaweed cultivation is a promising ecologically inspired marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) strategy. However, accurate measurement of biomass dynamics remains challenging, hindering large-scale investment. We aim to overcome this using drone images and a benchmark to test and improve machine learning methodologies for daily growth and falloff. Tracking daily growth and falloff, we can better estimate episodic falloff of seaweed validate carbon removal each day, improving carbon accounting and driving acceptance for mCDR feasibility. This approach builds support for mCDR feasibility and accelerates seaweed cultivation's scalability in addressing climate change.

What is the significance of this project?

mCDR faces a critical challenge: reliable and effective seaweed biomass measurement has historically limited scalability. We use drones and machine learning to track daily growth and biomass loss, similar to leaves falling from a tree. This data improves carbon accounting and validates seaweed mariculture as a viable climate solution. Historically, measuring mCDR has been seen as complex and expensive, but our approach transforms both accuracy and cost-effectiveness. Daily drone photos allow us to monitor growth rates and biomass falloff events in real-time. By Simplifying measurements, we can expand ecologically inspired seaweed mariculture globally, restoring oceanic primary production—the "second lung" of Earth, while driving environmental and economic benefits.

What are the goals of the project?

Seaweed mCDR needs reliable and robust normative gold standards for mMRV. Our goals include developing a benchmark for affordable, scalable methods that integrate nature-based seaweed cultivation with technology to quantify removed atmospheric carbon by analyzing daily growth and falloff rates. Algae act as the planet's second lung, crucial for oxygen production and carbon fixation. Using drones for high-resolution imaging in challenging weather and sediment traps to capture falling seaweed, we’ll assess carbon fixation and sequestration in real time starting early next year. This daily data will improve growth modeling and fine carbon estimates, providing an affordable public mMRV methodology to enhance the impact of mCDR solutions for scalable climate mitigation.

Budget

Our budget items are essential for executing this research by enabling comprehensive data collection and analysis of seaweed growth and carbon sequestration.

Items 1 and 3 provide drones and high-resolution cameras for capturing aerial images of seaweed biomass, offering extensive visual data.

Item 4 ensures continuous drone operations, allowing us to monitor growth patterns over time.

Items 2 and 6 deploy sediment traps and cover their operation to track biomass loss through sedimentation, crucial for estimating carbon sequestration.

Item 5 involves direct biomass measurement to validate and calibrate the imagery data.

Item 7 establishes a time-series training dataset benchmark, standardizing geospatial and color data for machine learning integration.

Item 8 covers data integration and analysis to estimate carbon removal rates effectively.

These items support the development of a scalable method for measuring seaweed's role in carbon sequestration, ensuring project success.

Project Timeline

The project spans one year, starting 01/15/2025. We will start with Drone Deployment, Direct Biomass Measurement, and Sediment Trap Deployment, concluding by 09/30/2025. These activities will gather critical data on seaweed growth and falloff rates. Subsequently, we'll focus on establishing an open-source Seaweed CNN supervised learning benchmark with carbon removal estimation by 01/15/2026. These deliverables will provide insights to project stakeholders and the scientific community.

Sep 30, 2025

Sediment Trap Deployment

Sep 30, 2025

Direct Biomass Measurement

Sep 30, 2025

Drone Deployment

Jan 15, 2026

Carbon Removal Estimation

Jan 15, 2026

Establish Time-Series Training Dataset Benchmark

Meet the Team

Brian von Herzen
Brian von Herzen
Executive Director

Affiliates

Climate Foundation
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Team Bio

Our Climate Foundation team combines extensive expertise in marine science, engineering, and seaweed cultivation, with year-round operations in the Philippines. We unite specialists in seaweed farming, engineering project management, physics, environmental engineering, risk analysis, social impact analysis, and marine biology with offshore mariculture experience. This collaborative blend of practical and academic expertise uniquely equips us to conduct this research.

Brian von Herzen

Dr. Brian Von Herzen is a pioneering climate scientist and technologist dedicated to regenerating marine ecosystems. As founder and executive director of the Climate Foundation, he leads groundbreaking work in Marine Permaculture, harnessing seaweed mariculture to restore ocean health and combat climate change.

Brian graduated magna cum laude in Physics from Princeton University in three years. As a Hertz Fellow, he earned a Ph.D. in Planetary Science from Caltech, deepening his understanding of Earth's climate. His Silicon Valley career with companies like Intel, Disney, and Microsoft honed his problem-solving skills, earning him numerous patents. He later redirected his expertise to address environmental challenges.

Motivated by the climate crisis, Brian founded The Climate Foundation to explore scalable, ecologically inspired approaches to addressing climate disruptions.Recognizing seaweed's potential, he advanced Marine Permaculture arrays that upwell deep ocean nutrients using solar and wave energy, fostering seaweed growth in nutrient-poor waters.

In the Philippines, his Marine Permaculture demonstration restored seaweed ecosystems, enhancing biodiversity, improving fisheries, and providing sustainable livelihoods. This work demonstrates seaweed cultivation's multipurpose benefits: capturing carbon, producing food and bioproducts, and sequestering carbon long-term through "SeaForestation."

Dr. Von Herzen's visionary approach integrates technology with ecological restoration, positioning Marine Permaculture as a viable climate change mitigation strategy. His efforts aim to regenerate marine life and create sustainable economic opportunities, fostering resilience in vulnerable communities. Under his leadership, the Climate Foundation is poised to significantly impact global carbon reduction.

Lab Notes

Nothing posted yet.

Additional Information

Scalability

We currently have access, through our partners, to over 40 communities, each capable of operating one or more hectares of marine permaculture. In the coming years , this could scale up to 5 km2, with the potential to fix, sequester or capture 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide per square kilometer over the lifetime of the projects. That could amount to a total of one megaton of CO₂ reduction—just from this effort alone, much less. Its further scaling. Licensing of the marine CDR approach methodology will be a key aspect to scaling and technology dissemination adoption and impact

To expand beyond this, we need to either scale by engaging a thousand community clusters or partner with a global brand like Cargill or other major companies to achieve worldwide distribution and impact.

Market Readiness

The project already holds permits for 350 hectares, triple the square kilometer estimate, secured through partnerships with the aquaculture group, positioning us to meet significant scale targets. While there may be potential market barriers, such as product registration for bastimance, these are unlikely to impede progress on the core objective of greenhouse gas reduction. Any challenges in this area would affect emissions reductions rather than carbon removals, which remain the primary focus.

Currently, we are in the second year of an initiative that is measuring carbon cycling in full detail. The results will be documented in peer-reviewed publications that will help establish a Gold Standard certification for carbon sequestration, advancing both the scientific and market legitimacy of their work.


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