Role of the marine biosphere in the global carbon cycle
- Bedford Inst. of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia (Canada)
The geographical disequilibrium of our planet is due mainly to carbon sequestration by marine organisms over geological time. Changes in atmospheric CO{sub 2} during interglacial-glacial transitions require biological sequestration of carbon in the oceans. Nutrient-limited export flux from new production in surface waters is the key process in this sequestrian. The most common model for export flux ignores potentially important nutrient sources and export mechanisms. Export flux occurs as a result of biological processes whose complexity appears not to be accommodated by the principal classes of simulation models, this being especially true for food webs dominated by single-celled protists whose trophic function is more dispersed than among the multicelled metazoa. The fashionable question concerning a hypothetical missing sink' for CO{sub 2} emissions is unanswerable because of imprecision in our knowledge of critical flux rates. This question also diverts attention from more relevant studies of how the biological pump may be perturbed by climatic consequences of CO{sub 2} emissions. Under available scenarios for climate change, such responses may seem more likely to reinforce, rather than mitigate, the rate of increase of atmospheric CO{sub 2}.
- OSTI ID:
- 6994468
- Journal Information:
- Limnology and Oceanography; (United States), Vol. 36:8; ISSN 0024-3590
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
CARBON DIOXIDE
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
SEAS
CARBON CYCLE
BIOGEOCHEMISTRY
BIOSPHERE
CARBON SINKS
CLIMATIC CHANGE
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
GLOBAL ASPECTS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMISTRY
GEOCHEMISTRY
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SINKS
SURFACE WATERS
540320* - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)
290301 - Energy Planning & Policy- Environment
Health
& Safety- Regional & Global Environmental Aspects- (1992-)