Study: Ocean absorbing excess carbon dioxide

CNN ^ | July 16, 2004 | AP

[ChicagoHebrew]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/07/15/ocean.carbondioxide.ap/index.html

[ChicagoHebrew]

You've got to love how liberals spin a POSITIVE study about nature absorbing CO2 (thus cutting global warming) -- indeed -- not even MENTION that the study implies lower global warming -- and then mention only a POSSIBLE negative -- while totally ignoring other explanations. Maybe (indeed, likely) the ocean is absorbing more CO2 because the CO2 is increasing plant life and alge -- a good thing! Carbon is, after all, the basic building block of life on Earth.

[martin_fierro]

EVERYBODY! STOP EXHALING!

[ScuzzyTerminator]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearly half the excess carbon dioxide spilled into the air by humans over the past two centuries has been taken up by the ocean, a study says. If that continues, it could damage the ability of many ocean creatures to make their shells, says an accompanying report.

Carbon dioxide, produced by burning fossil fuels and other industrial processes, is one of the most important "greenhouse" gasses that many scientists fear may be causing global warming by trapping heat in the Earth's atmosphere.

The atmosphere currently includes about 380 parts per million of carbon dioxide, up from 280 parts per million in 1800, according to scientists.

But that accounts for only about half the CO2 released into the air in that period, causing researchers to speculate about what had happened to the rest.

A team led by Christopher L. Sabine of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, reports in Friday's issue of the journal Science that the missing gas is dissolved in the ocean.

"The ocean has removed 48 percent of the CO2 we have released to the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels and cement manufacturing," Sabine said after reviewing data gathered between 1989 and 1998 from three major studies of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The studies collected more than 72,000 ocean samples.

Overall, Sabine said, between 1800 and 1994 the oceans absorbed 118 billion metric tons of carbon that had been released into the air. A metric ton is 2,205 pounds, indicating that during that period carbon dissolved in the oceans about equaled the weight of 118 billion small cars.

While some researchers have raised the possibility that increasing forests and other plants could take up CO2, that appears not to have been the case until recent years.

Over the past two centuries, land plants appear to have contributed CO2 to the air as forests were cut for farming, Sabine said. Only in the last few decades, as reforestation has gotten under way, has that been reversed with plants taking in more carbon dioxide than they release.

Taro Takahashi of Columbia University's Lamont-Daugherty Earth Observatory notes in an accompanying commentary in Science that over time, the amount of CO2 taken up by plants has been nearly balanced by CO2 released by changes in land use patterns.

The oceans could continue absorbing the gas for centuries, Sabine said, because ocean waters mix slowly and most of the CO2 is in near-surface water.

An accompanying study by Richard A. Feely, also of NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle, notes that dissolving CO2 in water forms an acid and that process can affect ocean life.

Feely and his research team found in laboratory tests that the water near the ocean surface with added CO2 can cause shells of marine animals, including corals, snails and plankton, to dissolve.

Carbon dioxide levels that may occur in the seas by the end of the century could reduce the amount of calcium in shells by 25 percent to 45 percent, the researchers said.

That process hasn't yet been studied in the oceans, he noted, but the lab findings indicate a need for concern.

The increasing CO2 could "compromise the fitness or the success" of these animals, said Victoria J. Fabry of California State University at San Marcos.

That might mean a change in the structure of the food chain, she said, but not enough is known about the effects yet to say what that change would be.

Data for the ocean CO2 study was collected in three research efforts: the National Science Foundation-led World Ocean Circulation Experiment, the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study, and NOAA's Ocean-Atmosphere Carbon Exchange Study. The data from these studies were analyzed for the two papers, by Sabine and Feely.

Sabine and Feely worked together on the studies and each is listed as a co-author on the paper led by the other. Other researchers on their teams came from the United States, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Japan, Spain and Germany.

Funding for the studies came from NOAA, National Science Foundation, Department of Energy and Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

So all the Republicans are suppose to stop exhaling? But the burning questions is, when are all the Democrats going to stop INHALING???

[kb2614]

Bush's fault.

[datura]

"The oceans could continue absorbing the gas for centuries, Sabine said, because ocean waters mix slowly and most of the CO2 is in near-surface water."

And how many shellfish are found in "near surface water"??? Secondly, as soon as you read the words "fossil fuel" you know they're full of sh!t. Or maybe Saturn's moon Titan had a huge population of dinosaurs to cause its' methane, ethane, and aromatic hydrocarbon atmosphere. These global warming losers need to find a new game to play. This one has been worn out.

[Future Useless Eater]

quite right! CO2 is plant food, not pollution.

Trees, crops, algae etc... will all THRIVE and pump out
even more oxygen (crop's waste product).

Mother nature is self-leveling.

[P H Lewis]

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearly half the excess carbon dioxide spilled into the air by humans over the past two centuries has been taken up by the ocean, a study says. If that continues, it could damage the ability of many ocean creatures to make their shells, says an accompanying report."

Women and minorities hit hardest say experts.

[adam_az]

"That process hasn't yet been studied in the oceans, he noted, but the lab findings indicate a need for concern."

How deep is the water in their lab??

[Stingray]

"If that continues, it could damage the ability of many ocean creatures to make their shells..."

Follow me here for a minute:

Most shellfish are either filter feeders (plankton or algae) or they scavenge on detritus (plant and vegetable matter that dies and settles to the bottom). And some are actually predators.

Plants need CO2 to grow. Shellfish eat the plants (or the animals that ate the plants) and the shells they synthesize in their bodies are made of "calcium carbonate."

Hmmm. Plants need CO2. Shellfish need the plants that need the CO2 to synthesize their shells, which are composed of calcium and carbon. So how does having CO2 in the ocean damage the ability of shellfish to produce their shells?

I wish the people that spouted this kind of crap science would do us all a favor and drink the grape Kool-Aid now. That would make the planet safer for everyone.

[Dick Holmes]

"If that continues, it could damage the ability of many ocean creatures to make their shells..."

'Follow me here for a minute:

... 'Plants need CO2. Shellfish need the plants that need the CO2 to synthesize their shells, which are composed of calcium and carbon. So how does having CO2 in the ocean damage the ability of shellfish to produce their shells?'

I think what they were trying to say was, an increase in the concentration of dissolved CO2 in seawater will dissolve shells quicker. "Feely and his research team found in laboratory tests that the water near the ocean surface with added CO2 can cause shells of marine animals, including corals, snails and plankton, to dissolve." What they didn't mention, but anyone with a science background would know, is that CO2 dissolved in water produces carbonic acid, and so makes the water more acidic.

'I wish the people that spouted this kind of crap science would do us all a favor and drink the grape Kool-Aid now. That would make the planet safer for everyone.'

It might have been badly written, but pot kettle black and all that...

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Careful how you challenge Mr. Feely. He can get touchy.

[ScuzzyTerminator]

Shellfish and coral make calcium carbonate directly from the CO2 in water. They do not get the carbon from thier food. All this carbon eventually ends up as limestone.

Increased CO2  increases acidity and acid disolves shells. That is the concern.

However, there is good reason to suspect that this does not happen in the oceans. Increased acidity disolves limestone - and there is a LOT of limestone in the oceans - which acts as a "buffer" to neutralise the pH.

Every marine aquariest understands this. They like to keep a layer of dolomite or some coral in the tank to keep pH constant. It would think it would be mighty hard to change the pH of the oceans.

[reformedliberal]

This may be a dumb question:

The ocean is saltwater. Salt is a base. Does that affect the acidity at all?

It is 45 years since I took HS chemistry, so please help out here.

TIA.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Over the past two centuries, land plants appear to have contributed CO2 to the air as forests were cut for farming, Sabine said.

It's difficult to imagine what the author of this article was trying to say after hitting this gem. Wonder what kind of plants the author keeps at home?

[Reeses]

the lab findings indicate a need for concern.

It also indicates the lab is out of money. Your only hope in this world is to send more now.

[Stingray]

"What they didn't mention, but anyone with a science background would know, is that CO2 dissolved in water produces carbonic acid, and so makes the water more acidic."

And as anyone with a science background would know alkali balances acid. There is more than enough alkali in the ocean to keep seawater alkali without damaging the "ability of many ocean creatures to make their shells."

Once again, however, a mere lab experiment is being used as a model for the whole ocean, proving only that scienctists with an agenda can get any result they want from a "lab experiment" to panic the masses.