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Sustainable blue economy: Opportunities and challenges

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Abstract

The term ‘blue economy’, first introduced in 2010, is the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, jobs, ocean health, and to improve livelihoods. However, a sustainable blue economy faces various challenges in the form of global warming, ocean acidification, and lack of knowledge about the ocean; for example, 95% of the sea is still unexplored, making it more important to understand the blue economy and implement it on a global scale. Other challenges include harmful algal blooms (HABs), invasive species, coral bleaching, and thermohaline circulation. This review discusses various aspects of the blue economy like food, value-added products, offshore energy, oxygen source, mining, fisheries, carbon sequestration, and cloud seeding. The future aspects of blue economy, like sustainability, effective policies, and reducing carbon footprints and microplastics are also explored here.

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(adapted from Alves et al. 2018; Cappello and Nieri 2021).

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Acknowledgements

All authors acknowledge the Central University of Punjab for providing support, necessary resources, and infrastructure during the study.

Funding

MK and DSY acknowledge the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), respectively, for financial assistance as PhD fellowship (JRF). FB acknowledges Science and Engineering Research Board under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, for a core research grant (CRG/20l9/005499).

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  1. Department of Botany, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, Punjab, 151 401, India

    Sahil Narwal, Manpreet Kaur, Digvijay Singh Yadav & Felix Bast

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  1. Sahil Narwal
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  2. Manpreet Kaur
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  3. Digvijay Singh Yadav
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  4. Felix Bast
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Contributions

SN and FB conceptualized the study, and SN, MK, and DSY contributed to data acquisition, writing, reviewing, and editing of the manuscript. FB secured the funding for the study from DST-SERB, GOI. The final manuscript was read and approved by all authors.

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Correspondence to Felix Bast.

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Corresponding editor: Renee M. Borges

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Narwal, S., Kaur, M., Yadav, D.S. et al. Sustainable blue economy: Opportunities and challenges. J Biosci 49, 18 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12038-023-00375-x

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