North Atlantic slows on the uptake of CO2October 23, 2007Further evidence for the decline of the oceans' historical role as an important sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide is supplied by new research by environmental scientists from the University of East Anglia. Since the industrial revolution, much of the CO2 we have released into the atmosphere has been taken up by the world's oceans which act as a strong 'sink' for the emissions. This has slowed climate change. Without this uptake, CO2 levels would have risen much faster and the climate would be warming more rapidly.
A paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research by Dr Ute Schuster and Professor Andrew Watson of UEA's School of Environmental Sciences again raises concerns that the oceans might be slowing their uptake of CO2. Results of their decade-long study in the North Atlantic show that the uptake in this ocean, which is the most intense sink for atmospheric CO2, slowed down dramatically between the mid-nineties and the early 2000s. A slowdown in the sink in the Southern Ocean had already been inferred, but the change in the North Atlantic is greater and more sudden, and could be responsible for a substantial proportion of the observed weakening. The observations were made from merchant ships equipped with automatic instruments for measuring carbon dioxide in the water. Much of the data has come from a container ship carrying bananas from the West Indies to the UK, making a round-trip of the Atlantic every month. The MV Santa Maria, chartered by Geest, has generated more than 90,000 measurements of CO2 in the past few years. The results show that the uptake by the North Atlantic halved between the mid-90s, when data was first gathered, and 2002-05. "Such large changes are a tremendous surprise. We expected that the uptake would change only slowly because of the ocean's great mass," said Dr Schuster. "We are cautious about attributing this exclusively to human-caused climate change because this uptake has never been measured before, so we have no baseline to compare our results to. Perhaps the ocean uptake is subject to natural ups and downs and it will recover again." But the direction of the change was worrying, she added, and there were some grounds for believing that a 'saturation' of the ocean sink would start to occur. "The speed and size of the change show that we cannot take for granted the ocean sink for the carbon dioxide. Perhaps this is partly a natural oscillation or perhaps it is a response to the recent rapid climate warming. In either case we now know that the sink can change quickly and we need to continue to monitor the ocean uptake," said Prof Watson. University of East Anglia | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Related Carbon Dioxide News Articles Scientists peel away the mystery behind gold's catalytic prowess Few materials have exercised as much of a hold on the human imagination, or on human history, as has gold. Bad sign for global warming: Thawing permafrost holds vast carbon pool Permafrost blanketing the northern hemisphere contains more than twice the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, making it a potentially mammoth contributor to global climate change depending on how quickly it thaws. Complex ocean behavior studied with 'artificial upwelling' A team of scientists is studying the complex ocean upwelling process by mimicking nature - pumping cold, nutrient-rich water from deep within the Pacific Ocean and releasing it into surface waters near Hawaii that lack the nitrogen and phosphorous necessary to support high biological production. Thawing permafrost likely to boost global warming The thawing of permafrost in northern latitudes, which greatly increases microbial decomposition of carbon compounds in soil, will dominate other effects of warming in the region and could become a major force promoting the release of carbon dioxide and thus further warming, according to a new assessment in the September 2008 issue of BioScience. No more big stink: Scent lures mosquitoes, but humans can't smell it Mosquito traps that reek like latrines may be no more. A University of California, Davis research team led by chemical ecologist Walter Leal has discovered a low-cost, easy-to-prepare attractant that lures blood-fed mosquitoes without making humans hold their noses. Smoking during pregnancy a 'double-edged sword' in SIDS Premature infants whose mothers smoked during pregnancy may be at even higher risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) than preemies whose mothers did not smoke, according to new research out of the University of Calgary. Why is Greenland covered in ice? There have been many reports in the media about the effects of global warming on the Greenland ice-sheet, but there is still great uncertainty as to why there is an ice-sheet there at all. DOE official cites need for major breakthroughs to cope with climate change Meeting the world's growing energy needs while responding to global warming during the 21st Century will be one of the biggest challenges humanity has ever faced, Raymond L. Orbach, Ph.D., the U.S. Department of Energy's Under Secretary for Science, says in the latest podcast in the American Chemical Society's Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions series Future for clean energy lies in 'big bang' of evolution Amid mounting agreement that future clean, "carbon-neutral", energy will rely on efficient conversion of the sun's light energy into fuels and electric power, attention is focusing on one of the most ancient groups of organism, the cyanobacteria. Groundbreaking research shows DEET's not sweet to mosquitoes Spray yourself with a DEET-based insect repellent and the mosquitoes will leave you alone. But why? They flee because of their intense dislike for the smell of the chemical repellent and not because DEET jams their sense of smell, report researchers at the University of California, Davis. More Carbon Dioxide News Articles |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||