-- Solar Irradiance changes (let's say about 2 % and more)-- Now, world heats up temperature rises,
ocean releases CO2 and water vapor as it warms (even with lag)-- Temperature rise even father, CO2 and water vapour are released until a natural balance limit is reached (otherwise you could «over-satisfy» the athmosphere)
Funny how a warming
ocean releases CO2 and more ends up in the atmosphere.
Q, If a warmer
ocean releases CO2 and a cooler ocean absorbs CO2 and if the oceans are warming ergo releasing CO2 then how could they also be absorbing CO2?
-- Warmer
oceans release co2 into the atmosphere, raising its concentration in the air.
How can the atmosphere control the climate via its CO2 content when the oceans contain 15 times more of it and CO2 is more soluble in cold water than warm water (
the oceans release CO2 to atmosphere when they warm for whatever reason).
So Jim D, if
the oceans release CO2 as they warm, and CO2 causes warming, why has the earth not spiraled into an oven thousands / millions of years ago?
In the case of warming, the lag between temperature and CO2 is explained as follows: as ocean temperatures rise,
oceans release CO2 into the atmosphere.
Not exact matches
Longer timescales bring changes in vegetation that also affect heat absorption, and the possibility that land and
oceans begin to
release CO2 rather than absorb it.
«The results show unequivocally that most of the increase in
CO2 between 7000 and 500 years ago is due to
release of carbon from the
ocean, not to axe - wielding humans,» says Eric Steig, an isotope geochemist at the University of Washington in Seattle.
This solution would then be reacted with limestone, neutralizing the
CO2 by converting it to calcium bicarbonate, after which it would be
released into the
ocean.
So that then would
release the
CO2 to the atmosphere in the Southern
Ocean.»
In Antarctica some marine ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to the
ocean acidification due to an excess of
CO2 released into the atmosphere.
Similar frozen methane hydrates occur throughout the same arctic region as they did in the past, and warming of the
ocean and
release of this methane is of key concern as methane is 20x the impact of
CO2 as a greenhouse gas.
«Currently the
ocean is a sink for
CO2 — that is, it takes in more
CO2 from the atmosphere than it
releases,» Hutchins explains.
Some of the most recent findings are being
released for the first time at a symposium here this week called The
Ocean in a High -
CO2 World.
At present, the
ocean takes up a quarter of the
CO2 -
released to the atmosphere by human industrial activities — with long - lasting consequences for the chemical composition of seawater and marine habitats.
In July researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published findings that the
oceans store almost half the anthropogenic carbon dioxide — the
CO2 produced by humans —
released into the atmosphere.
With no otters to eat them, sea urchins thrive and gorge on kelp forests — often called the «rainforests of the
oceans» — resulting in major
CO2 releases.
Studies of past climate changes suggest the land and
oceans start
releasing more
CO2 than they absorb as the planet warms.
CO2 concentrations would start to fall immediately since the
ocean and terrestrial biosphere would continue to absorb more carbon than they
release as long as the
CO2 level in the atmosphere is higher than pre-industrial levels (approximately).
If the
ocean was causing the warming, it would
release excess
CO2.
But Exxon's researchers wanted to understand how exactly
CO2 behaved in the
oceans — and whether after trapping the gas, the seas would eventually
release it into the atmosphere.
My research indicates that the Siberian peat moss, Arctic tundra, and methal hydrates (frozen methane at the bottom of the
ocean) all have an excellent chance of melting and
releasing their stored
co2.Recent methane concentration figures also hit the news last week, and methane has increased after a long time being steady.The forests of north america are drying out and are very susceptible to massive insect infestations and wildfires, and the massive die offs - 25 % of total forests, have begun.And, the most recent stories on the Amazon forecast that with the change in rainfall patterns one third of the Amazon will dry and turn to grassland, thereby creating a domino cascade effect for the rest of the Amazon.With
co2 levels risng faster now that the
oceans have reached carrying capacity, the
oceans having become also more acidic, and the looming threat of a North Atlanic current shutdown (note the recent terrible news on salinity upwelling levels off Greenland,) and the change in cold water upwellings, leading to far less biomass for the fish to feed upon, all lead to the conclusion we may not have to worry about NASA completing its inventory of near earth objects greater than 140 meters across by 2026 (Recent Benjamin Dean astronomy lecture here in San Francisco).
Are you stating that you believe that
ocean acidification is the greatest threat to humans by
releasing CO2?
This spatial gradient in pH reflects the age and isolation of the water masses, which accumulate
CO2 released by biological respiration as they move through the
ocean basins.
The continual drop in oceanographic pH (increase in acidity) is arguably one of the most worrying effects of atmospheric carbon, as up to 40 % of the
CO2 released will eventually be dissolved into the world's
oceans, lakes, and rivers.
The accumulation of organic carbon in the deep
ocean would limit the
release of carbon into the atmosphere as
CO2, limiting further warming by this greenhouse gas.
ref The
ocean plays an important role in reducing atmospheric
CO2 by absorbing about 1/4 of
CO2 that has been
released each year into the atmosphere.
One - quarter of all
CO2 released into the atmosphere is absorbed by the
oceans.
Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, about one third of the
CO2 released in the atmosphere by anthropogenic activities has been absorbed by the world's
oceans, which play a key role in moderating climate change.
A 2008 study led by James Hansen found that climate sensitivity to «fast feedback processes» is 3 °C, but when accounting for longer - term feedbacks (such as ice sheet disintegration, vegetation migration, and greenhouse gas
release from soils, tundra or
ocean), if atmospheric
CO2 remains at the doubled level, the sensitivity increases to 6 °C based on paleoclimatic (historical climate) data.
Secondly, about half of the
CO2 we
release into the atmosphere is absorbed either by plants on land or into the
ocean and tightening up those numbers is really important.
As a gigantic carbon sink, the
ocean has taken up about a third of the carbon dioxide (
CO2)
released into the atmosphere by human activities.
As the
ocean and soil become warmer they
release CO2 and other greenhouse gases, causing further warming.
As the
ocean warms, for example, it
releases CO2 to the atmosphere, with one principal mechanism being the simple fact that the solubility of
CO2 decreases as the water temperature rises [204].
There's typically an initial
ocean uptake as tropical East Pacific upwelling (
CO2 degassing) is reduced, followed by a stronger
release of carbon from land.
As the
ocean cools, much more
CO2 will dissolve in it and when the
ocean warms again the
CO2 is
released.
At what point will
CO2 be
released from the
oceans?
A rapid depletion in 13C between about 17,500 and 14,000 years ago, simultaneous with a time when the
CO2 concentration rose substantially, is consistent with
release of
CO2 from an isolated deep -
ocean source that accumulated carbon due to the sinking of organic material from the surface.
The atmospheric fraction of that instantaneously
released CO2 would drop quickly as it invaded the
oceans, while the thermal response of the Earth will be slowed by the thermal inertial of the
oceans.
I just go to the section where they get into discussing Arctic seabed methane in more detail, and the conclusion of that section is actually: «In summary, the
ocean methane hydrate pool has strong potential to amplify the human
CO2 release from fossil fuel combustion over time scales of decades to centuries.»
Given the number of ways that things can go wrong with continued
CO2 emissions (from
ocean acidfication and sea level rise to simple warming, shifting precipitation patterns,
release of buried carbon in perma - frost, and the possibility of higher climate sensitivities — which seem to be needed to account for glacial / inter-glacial transitions), crossing our fingers and carrying on with BAU seems nothing short of crazy to me.
When the
oceans begin to slow the rate of
CO2 uptake at saturation point that will futher push atmospheric
CO2 even higher, simultaneously the massive amounts of additional
CO2 and methane and nitrous oxide etc
released from the decay and oxidisation of oceanic living creatures who can not survive in a low ph environment will future ram the nail in the coffin.
The strongest argument being that
ocean acidification from anthropogenic
CO2 released to atmosphere is the greatest threat to the ecosystems of the world's
oceans - far greater than the very slight local risk that might arise if a sub sea bed geological storage site leaked.
The only argument I've seen along those lines is the one that claims that the vast majority of the
CO2 humans are emitting is sequestered in soils,
oceans, etc, or used by plants, but that «naturally» warmer temps result in the
release of sequestered
CO2.
On the human time scale,
release of fossil
CO2 is absorbed and stored in the
ocean based on the partial pressure across the air water interface.
of anthropogenic
CO2 releases that have been taken out of the atmosphere (over and above the amount taken out of the atmosphere that balances the natural additions to the atmosphere), perhaps mainly as a direct biogeochemical feedback (increased
CO2 favoring more rapid biological fixation of C, net flux of
CO2 into water until equilibrium for the given storage of other involved chemical species in the upper
ocean) fairly promptly.
In my model, that is to say neglecting surprises but just considering the atmosphere /
ocean / CaCO3 system, if we stopped
releasing CO2 today and closed the terrestrial biosphere to either
releases or uptake of carbon, just closed the system,
CO2 would relax down to some value higher than today.
If the
released carbon were initially in the form of methane, it would have been oxidized to
CO2 within a few decades, but as
CO2 it apparently stuck around, warming the deep
ocean, for a long time before it went away.
The most important in this is the
release of
CO2 from the warming
oceans.