With an annual production of 27.3 million tons in 2014 and a growth rate of 8% year −1, seaweed aquaculture now comprises 27% of total marine aquaculture production. Despite these limitations, seaweed farming practices can be optimized to maximize climate benefits, which may, if economically compensated, improve the income of seaweed farmers. The scope to expand seaweed aquaculture is, however, limited by the availability of suitable areas and competition for suitable areas with other uses, engineering systems capable of coping with rough conditions offshore, and increasing market demand for seaweed products, among other factors. Seaweed aquaculture contributes to climate change adaptation by damping wave energy and protecting shorelines, and by elevating pH and supplying oxygen to the waters, thereby locally reducing the effects of ocean acidification and de-oxygenation. Seaweed aquaculture can also help reduce the emissions from agriculture, by improving soil quality substituting synthetic fertilizer and when included in cattle fed, lowering methane emissions from cattle. The crop can also be used, in total or in part, for biofuel production, with a potential CO 2 mitigation capacity, in terms of avoided emissions from fossil fuels, of about 1,500 tons CO 2 km −2 year −1. Seaweed farms release carbon that maybe buried in sediments or exported to the deep sea, therefore acting as a CO 2 sink. Seaweed aquaculture, the fastest-growing component of global food production, offers a slate of opportunities to mitigate, and adapt to climate change. 4Ocean College, Zhejiang University, Zhoushan, China.3Arctic Research Centre, Aarhus University, Silkeborg, Denmark.2Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Silkeborg, Denmark.

1Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.Duarte 1,2,3 *, Jiaping Wu 4, Xi Xiao 4, Annette Bruhn 2 and Dorte Krause-Jensen 2,3

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