Sentences with phrase «ocean surface layers»

I read: Concurrently, the temperature in the ocean surface layers was lower than normal during the warming event and higher than normal during the cooling event.

the atmosphere 760 PgC (increasing at a rate of about 3 PgC p.a.) the ocean surface layers 800 PgC the deep ocean 38,000 PgC plants and soils 2,000 PgC

In particular, recent studies have shown that more atmospheric CO2 is causing the PH of ocean surface layers to drop (ie become more acidic) leading potentially to coral kills and substantial changes in sea life.

Please note the squiggles which indicate that the flows between deep ocean and ocean surface layers are completely unknown and it is not possible even to estimate them (although some organizations do provide guesses).

But ocean surface layers take nowhere near centuries to turn over.

I'd like to ask a general question: since the oceans are taking up about 1/3 of the anthropogenic carbon emissions, what is the opinion now of the scientific community about when the ocean surface layers will get saturated and this carbon sink (on relatively short timescales) will start to diminish?

Soundbite version: «Global warming is expected to increase sea surface temperatures, create a thicker and warmer ocean surface layer, and increase the moisture in the atmosphere over the oceans — all conditions that should lead to a general increase in hurricane intensity and maybe frequency.»

For example, the 9 month lag could be a change to release of CO2 from the ocean surface layer in response to a temperature change which would occur within months.

What temperature is relevant is the temperature that the effective radiant layer «sees» which for about 70 % of the surface would be either that thin ocean surface layer that can be several degrees above the measured subsurface temperatures or the tops of the clouds.

Indeed, if atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration were to quadruple then the change to ocean surface layer pH would be within the existing variations (both spatial and temporal) of ocean pH.

The ocean surface layer and the atmosphere are in close equilibrium in less than 2 years.

The ocean surface layer is what directly matters, that contains somewhat more CO2 than the atmosphere (1,000 GtC vs. 800 GtC), but the chemical reactions in the ocean water push the equilibrium back, so that ultimately the surface water - air equilibrium is reached with a 1:9 partitioning between water and air, reverse and far away from the 50:1.

Thus about 50 % of 14C is relative fast absorbed by the oceans surface layer, compared to only 10 % of any extra 12C or 13C.

An increase of 10 % CO2 in the atmosphere gives an increase of 10 % of free CO2 in the ocean surface layer, but only 1 % in total dissolved CO2.

It takes about 1.5 years to bring the oceans surface layer in equilibrium with the atmosphere.

Henry's Law is only important for the oceans surface layer (the «mixed» layer), not for what resides in the deep oceans.

The current total amounts of carbon in the atmosphere and the ocean surface layer are about 1:1.

That is the case for the oceans surface layer, which is very fast (1 - 2 years for a near complete exchange) but saturates already at 10 % of the extra amount in the atmosphere.

Henry's Law still holds, as the amount of free CO2 in the water follows the increase in the atmosphere, but free CO2 is less than 1 % of the total amount of carbon in the oceans surface layer, the bulk are bicarbonates and carbonates, which don't follow Henry's Law, but influence the amount of free CO2.

Ocean surface layer and atmosphere have rapid exchanges (1 - 2 years) to equilibrium.

As there is no differentiation in type for the inflows and outflows, also 22 % of the red CO2 is exchanged by natural, colourless CO2, from the deep oceans (we forget for a moment that some of it returns in another season from the ocean surface layer and vegetation decay).

If the temperatures had been above average, there would have been more surface melt and heating of the ocean surface layer; this would have accelerated the melt rate of the ice.

Thus the pH level of the ocean surface layer is not the same thing as the total CO2 dissolved by the oceans.

Inspection of dT / dt may give useful insight into the net power entering or leaving the ocean surface layer.

However, I have repeatedly pointed out that the opposite is also possible because the deep ocean waters now returning to ocean surface could be altering the pH of the ocean surface layer with resulting release of CO2 from the ocean surface layer.

FL is the human fraction in the ocean surface layer and tCA total carbon and nCA natural carbon in the atmosphere.

The paper by Tolstoy requires serious scrutiny because it suggests «pulses» of undersea volcanism may affect ocean chemistry and, thus, ocean surface layer pH.

The number and coverage of the measurements is completely inadequate for determination of changes to global ocean DIC and global ocean surface layer pH.

An alteration of ocean surface layer pH alters the equilibrium concentration of atmospheric CO2.

The resulting change to sulphur in the ocean surface layer alters the pH of the layer.

In short: the oceans can't be the cause of the increase, by Henry's Law and because the 13C / 12C ratio is higher than in the atmosphere while we see a continuous drop in ratio both in the ocean surface layer and the atmosphere in ratio with human emissions.

The water acquires sulphur ions as it passes undersea volcanoes and it carries that sulphur with it to the ocean surface layer decades or centuries later.

Water travels in the depths with the thermohaline circulation for centuries before it returns to the ocean surface layer.

The system is buffered (mostly by dissolved calcium compounds) so can not change much in the absence of a temperature change or a change to the pH of the ocean surface layer.

A main indirect effect is the fertilization of ocean phytoplankton production by dust - mitigated input of iron to the ocean surface layer (6, 7).

Similarly the oceans are excluded, as the 13C / 12C ratio of the oceans is too high, thus any substantial release of ocean CO2 would increase the 13C / 12C ratio, but we see a decrease, as well as in the atmosphere as in the ocean surface layer:

In the ocean the surface layer is cooler because it loses heat by evaporation, radiation upward and conduction to the air.

There is an equilibrium of CO2 concentration in the air and in the ocean surface layer.

BTW, only the temperature of the ocean surface layer is important for the CO2 fluxes in and out.

You need to make a differentiation between the ocean surface layer and the deep oceans.

The difference in CO2 uptake is returned as CO2 in the same ocean surface layer by the whole chain of phytoplankton eaters and their predators...

Even when a ~ 100 ppmv increase in the atmosphere increases the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) of the upper part of the oceans with ~ 100 microatm, the total amount in the atmosphere increases with 30 %, but in the ocean surface layer (the «mixed layer») with only 3 % (that is called the Revelle factor, ~ 10).

If the energy was staying concentrated in the ocean surface layer it would warm that layer faster (no heat leaking out into the lower ocean) and hence the atmosphere above it would warm faster too.

Not exact matches

Evaporation from the ocean waters can also lower the density of the air close to the surface to the point that it can not mix with the air layer above it.

The shrimp represent centimeter - sized swimmers, including krill and shrimplike copepods, found throughout the world's oceans that may together be capable of mixing ocean layers — and delivering nutrient - rich deep waters to phytoplankton, or microscopic marine plants, near the surface, the researchers suggest.

Their research remedies a problem that has plagued scientists for decades: ocean - observing satellites are incredibly powerful tools, but they can only «see» the surface layer of the ocean, leaving most of its depths out of reach.

«So if I have this depression at the south pole, and I have beneath the surface 50 kilometers down a layer of water or an ocean, that layer of water at depth is a positive mass anomaly.

The rising temperatures cause layers of ocean water to stratify so the more oxygen - rich surface waters are less able to mix with oxygen - poor waters from the deeper ocean.

The die - off is due to a combination of rising sea surface temperatures and decreased ocean circulation between the higher and lower layers, Boyce says.

This information is critical to understanding the depth of the spray layer above the ocean surface and the overall impact of spray on storm intensity.