From the University of Edinburgh and the department of soda pop science, comes something we already knew. I wonder who approved the grant for this one?
Rising global temperatures could increase the amount of carbon dioxide naturally released by the world’s oceans, fuelling further climate change, a study suggests.
Fresh insight into how the oceans can affect CO2 levels in the atmosphere shows that rising temperatures can indirectly increase the amount of the greenhouse gas emitted by the oceans.
Scientists studied a 26,000-year-old sediment core taken from the Gulf of California to find out how the ocean’s ability to take up atmospheric CO2 has changed over time.
They tracked the abundance of the key elements silicon and iron in the fossils of tiny marine organisms, known as plankton, in the sediment core. Plankton absorb CO2 from the atmosphere at the ocean surface, and can lock away vast quantities of carbon.
Researchers found that those periods when silicon was least abundant in ocean waters corresponded with relatively warm climates, low levels of atmospheric iron, and reduced CO2 uptake by the oceans’ plankton. Scientists had suspected that iron might have a role in enabling plankton to absorb CO2. However, this latest study shows that a lack of iron at the ocean surface can limit the effect of other key elements in helping plankton take up carbon.
This effect is magnified in the southern ocean and equatorial Pacific and coastal areas, which are known to play a crucial role in influencing levels of CO2 in the global atmosphere.
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh say their findings are the first to pinpoint the complex link between iron and other key marine elements involved in regulating atmospheric CO2 by the oceans. Their findings were verified with a global calculation for all oceans. The study, published in Nature Geoscience, was supported by Scottish Alliance for Geoscience Environment Society and the Natural Environment Research Council.
Dr Laetitia Pichevin, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said: “Iron is known to be a key nutrient for plankton, but we were surprised by the many ways in which iron affects the CO2 given off by the oceans. If warming climates lower iron levels at the sea surface, as occurred in the past, this is bad news for the environment.”
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“me too science”
Is there anything in this that isn’t already well known? Well maybe: “Their findings were verified with a global calculation for all oceans”, that’s pretty impressive based on a single drill core that doesn’t even span a whole glacial cycle.
If warming increases the ease of CO2 release from the oceans what does that do to the “Acidification” meme?
Has this research been cleared with The Team? Because it indicates that a considerable amount of CO2 has been released from the oceans naturally by the slight warming in the last century. It also means that Trenberth’s missing heat announce itself by a release of CO2 from the deep oceans.
CO2 causes ‘ocean acidification’ = BAD!
CO2 causes a ‘warmer atmosphere’ which causes oceans to out-gas CO2 = BAD!
Welcome yet again to the Climate Bunko Booth. ‘Heads we win, tails you lose, and EVERYTHING is due to CO2’
tty AND Aelfreth : Excellent points !
Perhaps now, Russ George will have some measure of vindication for his ocean iron sulphate- spreading experiments. “Climate scientists” and “environmentalists” worldwide have been howling for his head.
I’m confused. Are the oceans sinks or sources? CO2 warms the Earth and at the same time supposedly cause ocean acidification by an increase in the partial vapor pressure of atmospheric CO2, yet a warmer Earth causes CO2 to come out of solution and increase the amount of atmospheric CO2???? I am afraid there is something that I am not understanding. Which process is controlling, the rate of CO2 dissolving in the oceans or the rate of CO2 coming out of solution (assuming a warming Earth caused by CAGW)?
I expect there was a model lurking about somewhere there.
Aelfrith. Sorry.
[Dr Laetitia Pichevin, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said: “Iron is known to be a key nutrient for plankton, but we were surprised by the many ways in which iron affects the CO2 given off by the oceans. If warming climates lower iron levels at the sea surface, as occurred in the past, this is bad news for the environment.” ]
“this is bad news for the environment.” !!
In that case, we’d better give them twice the cash they ask for then !!
We must save the planet from itself
Now they’ve looked at one core they will need to study 1,000s more to verify the findings, that will take years, (a lifetimes worth…. with lots of field trips) ALL grant funded !!
Your “comes something we already knew” isn’t really fair.
This research does not make the direct link between temperature and Henry’s constant which you allude to in your “soda-pop” sneer. It does present an indirect effect of warming oceans on biological CO2 sequestration. But like all studies of this nature they fail to run a laboratory experiment to test the hypothesis under controlled conditions.
It supports the idea that atmospheric CO2 increases are an EFFECT of warming, not a cause.
First the last XKCD comic and now this paper. Are people becoming dumber? Hey, maybe it is another effect of rising CO2 levels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry%27s_law
It is 1800s Physics, for Pete’s shake.
If you lived with the Edinburgh climate, you too would want to take samples from the Gulf of California.
Yeah, we’ve known for over a decade that CO2 levels rise and fall as a result of temperature changes, but there is zero evidence that CO2 causes temperature change. That’s the actual evidence! This 3 minute video is VERY persuasive, spread the word about it:
atmospheric iron?
alex
Desert dust see here
http://www.livescience.com/2077-desert-dust-feeds-world-oceans.html
Thinking about it, desert dust is probably bad news either way. Hotter, drier stormier = more atmospheric desert dust -> more iron in the oceans. However this study suggests lower iron which would mean Warmer,damper, less stormy = less atmospheric desert dust -> less iron in the oceans.
We simply do not know how to react phytoplankton in response to warming. We do not know (for the formulation of final conclusions) the balance of positive and negative reactions.
Whether iron really will be, in the future, limit algae NPP?
Laboratory experiments give different results, paleoclimatic observations give positive results (for “fertilization” iron – as the most important factor), but only for some temperature ranges.
One of the IPCC reports (http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/tar/wg1/101.htm):
“Warming may increase NPP in temperate and arctic ecosystems where it can increase the length of the seasonal and daily growing cycles, but it may decrease NPP in water-stressed ecosystems …”
“Respiratory processes are sensitive to temperature; soil and root respiration have generally been shown to increase with warming in the short term … … although evidence on longer-term impacts is conflicting …”
“… at least in the short term, any direct effect of warming on NPP may be more than offset by an increased respiration of soil carbon caused by the effects of increased depth of soil thaw. Increased decomposition, may, however also increase nutrient mineralisation and thereby indirectly stimulate NPP …”
Moreover, even in the most “alarmist” (here – the ocean) the paper, we have such requests:
“Phytoplankton in warmer equatorial waters grow much faster than their cold-water cousins.”
“They were able to show that phytoplankton have adapted to local temperatures.”
“Future models that incorporate genetic variability within species will allow us to determine whether particular species can adapt,” says Klausmeier, “or whether they will face extinction.”
(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121025161747.htm)
“In particular, the rate of protein synthesis strongly increases under high temperatures …”
(http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v3/n11/full/nclimate1989.html)
So here decides genetics …
The genetics of the best (though of course not enough) has been examined by Dr Jim Provan (http://pure.qub.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/jim-provan(83fccf9f-3463-40d8-b9a7-a30476dc2c88)/publications.htmlg)
The conclusions from two of his papers are probably the most important here:
“… current patterns of genetic variation across the ranges of Northern North Atlantic species, highlight the fact that the majority of these species do indeed harbour a disproportionate level of genetic diversity in rear-edge populations …” (2013)
[potentially ] “… loss of these rear-edge populations as a result of ongoing climate change will have a major effect on the overall genetic diversity of the species …” (2012)
“If warming climates lower iron levels at the sea surface, as occurred in the past, this is bad news for the environment”
And nature has a way of dealing with this – the iron from melting glaciers – was just reading about it the other day: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/glacial-melt-pours-iron-into-ocean-seeding-algal-blooms/
Gosh almighty! Does that mean CO2 is released by oceans as the temperature increases!? Well there’s a lot of ocean out there. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s really me that’s responsible for all this planetary destruction. What shall we do? Why don’t we call upon the governments of the world, the UN and the quangos to cover up the oceans with aluminium foil and save the planet from warming?
Remember how CO2 is dissolved in the oceans; as calcium or magnesium bicarbonate which is not stable in warm water. So, in warm shallow seas, the bicarbonate breaks down to calium or magnesium carbonate which precipitates out and CO2 gas is released. So half the ci2 is released as a gas and half is sequestered.
This lower concentration of silicon an iron in plankton remains wasn’t just a result of greater amounts of plankton during an abundant warm phase? Could there not be a simple equation of Earth warms up = more life = silicon and iron supplies spread over larger population?
If warming climates lower iron levels !!
Dr Jean-Baptiste Sallée, from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the British Antarctic Survey, said: “We are really excited to make this discovery because until now we didn’t know the physical processes allowing iron to reach the ocean surface and maintain biological activity. The combination of strong winds and intense heat loss in winter strongly mixes the ocean surface and the mixing reaches deep iron reservoir.”
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-03-southern-ocean-iron-insight-climate.html#jCp
There is a deep iron reservoir in the oceans, it comes to the surface due to intense heat loss in winter.
If ocean temps are rising is the intense heat loss in winter intensifying ? More mixing more ‘grub’ for carbon munching plankton ! The food chain will be happy!