ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Solutions for Ocean and Coastal Systems
Research on the Nonlinear Impact of Heterogeneous Environmental Regulations on Marine Carbon Sink Performance
Fang Ye 1
Xiaodong Sun 1
Jiaqiang Shen 2
1. Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan, China
2. Zhejiang Pharmaceutical University, Ningbo, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract
In the context of addressing climate change and advancing "carbon neutrality," enhancing marine carbon sink capacity has become a national strategy for many countries. Scientifically evaluating marine carbon sink performance and its driving mechanisms is crucial for optimizing marine environmental governance. This paper employs the Super-SBM model to measure the marine carbon sink performance of 11 coastal provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) in China from 2008 to 2022, and empirically examines the nonlinear impact of heterogeneous environmental regulations, as well as the mediating mechanisms of technological innovation and industrial upgrading. The results show that: Firstly, China's marine carbon sink performance has generally improved, but regional development is uneven. Secondly, command-and-control and market-incentive environmental regulations exhibit an "inverted U-shaped" relationship with performance, while social-supervised environmental regulations show a "U-shaped" relationship, indicating that there is an optimal intensity range for regulatory effects. Finally, technological innovation and industrial upgrading are important transmission pathways through which environmental regulations affect carbon sink performance. The research findings provide theoretical references and empirical evidence for governments to develop differentiated and diversified environmental regulation policy portfolios aimed at enhancing marine carbon sink capacity.
Summary
Keywords
heterogeneous environmental regulations, Industrial upgrading, marine carbon sink, marine carbon sink performance, technological innovation
Received
25 November 2025
Accepted
26 January 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Ye, Sun and Shen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Jiaqiang Shen
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.