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Climate Change: The Next Generation: Tas van Ommen: Warmer oceans release CO2 faster than thought
Warmer oceans release CO2 faster than thought
by Wendy Zukerman, New Scientist, April 25, 2011As the world's oceans warm, their massive stores of dissolved carbon dioxide may be quick to bubble back out into the atmosphere and amplify the greenhouse effect, according to a new study.
The oceans capture around 30% of human carbon dioxide emissions and hide it in their depths. This slows the march of global warming somewhat. But climate records from the end of the last ice age show that as temperatures climb, the trend reverses and the oceans emit CO2, which exacerbates warming.
Previous studies have suggested that it takes between 400 and 1,300 years for this to happen. But now the most precise analysis to date has whittled that figure down.
................................................................................................................
Worse warming?
And while more precise than the others, the team's study also comes with significant uncertainty: plus or minus 200 years, meaning there could actually be no lag time between rising temperatures and gases being released from the atmosphere.
"They've nailed it," says Paul Fraser, a greenhouse gas researcher at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). He adds that despite the uncertainty, "this is a really good data set that they've got."
Van Ommen says climate modelling will be needed before we can speculate how the results relate to current warming.
The work was presented at the Greenhouse 2011 conference in Cairns earlier this month.
Warmer oceans release CO2 faster than thought - environment - 25 April 2011 - New Scientist
Warmer oceans release CO2 faster than thought
by Wendy Zukerman, New Scientist, April 25, 2011As the world's oceans warm, their massive stores of dissolved carbon dioxide may be quick to bubble back out into the atmosphere and amplify the greenhouse effect, according to a new study.
The oceans capture around 30% of human carbon dioxide emissions and hide it in their depths. This slows the march of global warming somewhat. But climate records from the end of the last ice age show that as temperatures climb, the trend reverses and the oceans emit CO2, which exacerbates warming.
Previous studies have suggested that it takes between 400 and 1,300 years for this to happen. But now the most precise analysis to date has whittled that figure down.
................................................................................................................
Worse warming?
And while more precise than the others, the team's study also comes with significant uncertainty: plus or minus 200 years, meaning there could actually be no lag time between rising temperatures and gases being released from the atmosphere.
"They've nailed it," says Paul Fraser, a greenhouse gas researcher at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). He adds that despite the uncertainty, "this is a really good data set that they've got."
Van Ommen says climate modelling will be needed before we can speculate how the results relate to current warming.
The work was presented at the Greenhouse 2011 conference in Cairns earlier this month.
Warmer oceans release CO2 faster than thought - environment - 25 April 2011 - New Scientist