Climate change affecting ocean’s ability to absorb carbon
JUL 11, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025440
Science Daily : Climate change may be having a negative impact on the ocean carbon sink. Until now the ocean has been taking up roughly one-third of all human carbon emissions, decreasing atmospheric carbon dioxide and mitigating its associated global changes. In a new analysis published online 10 July in Nature Geoscience, Galen McKinley of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and colleagues found that rising global temperatures are slowing the carbon absorption across a large portion of the subtropical North Atlantic. Warmer water cannot hold as much carbon dioxide, so the ocean’s carbon capacity is decreasing as it warms. This information could be critical for decision making, since any decrease in ocean uptake may require greater human efforts to control carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
