19 February 2012
The Ocean: a sink for Carbon Dioxide?
In the past, the ocean has been considered a good sink for carbon dioxide. An article published three years ago discusses how climate change from increased carbon dioxide has caused the ocean to become a less effective sink. The climate change has lead to an increase in winds over the Southern Indian Ocean. The increase in winds has led to an increase in the mixing of the ocean. Because the ocean's waters are mixing more, the carbon dioxide is prevented from being able to settle in the deep ocean and is brought back to the surface. This leads the carbon dioxide to be released from the ocean and emitted back into the air, thus causing more climate change and a continuous cycle.
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The following article discusses how the process of fertilizing the oceans with iron is leading to increased carbon dioxide drawdown- the approach, considered a form of geoengineering, is to induce phytoplankton blooms through the addition of iron, with the ultimate goal of producing organic particles that sink into the deep ocean, thus sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. Perhaps the addition of iron to the oceans can counteract the increase in winds which are preventing the carbon dioxide from settling in the depths of the ocean?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue_archive/issue_pdfs/22_3/22-3_strong.pdf