<
https://theconversation.com/oceans-absorb-30-of-our-emissions-driven-by-a-huge-carbon-pump-tiny-marine-animals-are-key-to-working-out-its-climate-impacts-207219>
"The ocean holds 60 times more carbon than the atmosphere and absorbs almost
30% of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from human activities. This means the
ocean is key to understanding the global carbon cycle and thus our future
climate.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) uses earth system models
to project climate change. These projections inform critical political, social
and technological decisions. However, if we can’t accurately model the marine
carbon cycle then we cannot truly understand how Earth’s climate will respond
to different emission scenarios.
In research published today, we show that zooplankton, tiny animals near the
base of the ocean food chain, are likely to be the biggest source of
uncertainty in how we model the marine carbon cycle. Getting their impact on
the cycle right could add an extra 2 billion tonnes to current models’
assumptions about annual carbon uptake by the ocean. That’s more carbon than
the entire global transportation sector emits."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
