New research published in Nature It has been suggested that the ocean’s capacity to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is 20% higher than previously thought, at 15 gigatonnes per year. This study focused on the role of plankton in carbon transport to the ocean floor. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
Research has revealed that the ocean is storing 20% more carbon dioxide than previously estimated, primarily due to plankton transporting carbon to the ocean floor. However, this new understanding will not have much of an impact on his current CO2 emissions crisis.
The ocean’s capacity to store atmospheric carbon dioxide is about 20% greater than estimates included in the latest IPCC report.[1] These are the research results published in the journal Nature Led by an international team including biologists from the CNRS, it took place on December 6, 2023.[2] Scientists investigated the role plankton plays in the natural transport of carbon from surface waters to the ocean floor.
Plankton absorb carbon dioxide and convert it into organic tissue as they grow. photosynthesis. When plankton dies, some of it turns into particles known as “marine snow.” Because these particles are denser than seawater, they sink to the ocean floor, where they store carbon and provide essential nutrients to a wide range of deep-sea organisms, from tiny bacteria to deep-sea fish.
Global distribution of organic carbon flux from the surface layer of the open ocean. Credit: © Wang et al., 2023, Nature.
By analyzing banks of data collected from around the world by ocean research vessels since the 1970s, a team of seven scientists was able to digitally map the flux of organic matter across the world’s oceans. The resulting new estimate of carbon storage capacity is 15 gigatonnes per year, an increase of about 20% compared to a previous study published by the IPCC in its 2021 report (11 gigatonnes per year).
This reassessment of the ocean’s storage capacity represents a significant advance in our understanding of carbon exchange between the atmosphere and ocean at the global level. The research team emphasizes that this absorption process takes place over tens of thousands of years and is therefore not sufficient to offset the exponential growth of CO.2 Despite emissions caused by industrial activity around the world since 1750, this study highlights the importance of marine ecosystems as a key player in the long-term control of Earth’s climate.
Note
- IPCC Climate Change 2021 Report, Fundamentals of the Physical Sciences, Chapter 5, Figure 5.12: Figure AR6 WG1 | Climate Change 2021: Fundamentals of the Physical Sciences (ipcc.ch)
- From Marine Environmental Science Research Institute (CNRS/UBO/IFREMER/IRD)
Reference: “Estimating biological carbon pumps based on decades of hydrographic data” Wei-Lei Wang, Weiwei Fu, Frédéric AC Le Moigne, Robert T. Letscher, Yi Liu, Jin-Ming Tang, François W. Primeau , December 6, 2023, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06772-4
Source: scitechdaily.com
