
Ocean waves play greater role in trapping CO2 than previously understood - startupflix
https://phys.org/news/2018-05-reveals-ocean-greater-role-carbon.html
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phyzome
Lest people think "ooh, this is great!" \-- it's not, at least not beyond
"having a better understanding of the world is good".

The following might be reasonable (if not necessarily feasible) carbon sinks:

    
    
      - Conversion to other materials (plastic, graphite, fuel (sort of))
      - Injection into salt domes
    

The following are bad carbon sinks:

    
    
      - Your lungs
      - The ocean
    

CO2 dissolving in the ocean produces carbonic acid, and ocean acidification is
a huge problem -- it dissolves the shells of a number of creatures, and fucks
up the _entire biochemistry_ of the ecosystem. Remember, a lot of bacteria
(including ones right at the bottom of the food web) use the ocean water as a
sort of communal extracellular medium for nutrient exchange, and pH affects
nutrient availability differently for different nutrients. Changing the pH
throws everything out of whack, just like making your blood more acidic or
basic would hurt or kill you.

~~~
mkempe
The sky is not falling.

There are immense quantities of certain creatures in the ocean that take CO2,
emit O2, and eventually die and sink to the bottom of the ocean, thus building
deep layers of sediments and sequestering enormous amounts of carbon.

They've been doing this for almost 2 billion years: phytoplankton account for
about half of all photosynthetic activity on Earth (thereby consuming CO2);
50-85% of the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced via phytoplankton
photosynthesis. There have been past periods with at least 10x the current CO2
level, yet all of these oceanic organisms have thrived through it all.

[added] The massive accumulation of dead plankton in sea floors for millions
of years is the primary origin story of oil and coal. Clearly oceans are a
very large carbon sink.

~~~
civilitty
I can't find a link to the it now but in the late 90s/early 00s there was a
great research paper that found that we have lost a significant fraction of
our phytoplankton biomass, estimated at about 10-20% of the population between
1970 and 1995 due to pollution in the oceans. Our most important oxygen
producers are also the most vulnerable to pollution and ocean acidification.

The sky isn't "falling" but combined with all of the other trends we've been
seeing, we have no idea just how bad it can get it or if there is a cliff
where our economic/political systems begin to rapidly collapse under the
pressure of environmental effects. From what I can tell from the last few
years of research, our best climate models have been woefully underestimating
negative second order effects and since our ecosystems and economies are
interdependent there are few to no positives.

~~~
mkempe
Actually, calcifying plankton have been increasing 10x in abundance (i.e. _an
order of magnitude_ ) in the North Atlantic _over the last 45 years_ , as
carbon input into ocean waters has increased. ... "This finding was
diametrically opposed to what scientists had expected since coccolithophores
make their plates out of calcium carbonate, which is becoming more difficult
as the ocean becomes more acidic and pH is reduced." [1]

[1]
[https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160116215419.h...](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160116215419.htm)

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FrozenVoid
Co2 absorption is likely also enchanced by water/air mixing that exists in
uneven shore terrain, like bays/fjords/reefs/underwater rocks/etc which create
powerful underwater currents with tides and weather.
[https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0485(1989)...](https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0485\(1989\)019%3C0917:VMIBWO%3E2.0.CO;2)
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0037073880...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0037073880900068)
There is also a biological component:
[https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/tiny-shrimp-may-
be-m...](https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/tiny-shrimp-may-be-mixing-
ocean-water-much-wind-and-waves)

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jacob019
Are man made structures that interfere with the crashing of waves are having
an effect on atmospheric CO2?

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jimnotgym
Excellent. Global warming>more storms> more waves> more CO2 trapped... hard to
make that in to a solution though!

~~~
9192631770_Hz
The increased acidification isn't excellent, though.

~~~
aldoushuxley001
More CO2 will be turned into Coral, there's lots of feedback loops here

~~~
amvalo
> CO2 will be turned into Coral

No.

~~~
mkempe
In actual fact and science, yes, emphatically _yes._ Reef-building corals
contain photosynthetic algae; these zooxanthellae are an endosymbiont that
depends on and consumes CO2 for the direct benefit of its host. [1]

Up to 90% of the organic material photosynthetically produced by the
zooxanthellae is transferred to the host coral tissue. _" This is the driving
force behind the growth and productivity of coral reefs."_ [2]

The coral polyps thrive when they have access to nutrients produced by their
symbiont algae. These algae thrive when they have access to CO2, H2O, and
sunlight. Thus CO2 does turn into coral reefs.

[1] Coral-algae metabolism and diurnal changes in the CO2-carbonate system of
bulk sea water (2014)
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4034600/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4034600/)

[2]
[https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_corals/cora...](https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_corals/coral02_zooxanthellae.html)

~~~
amvalo
Ok, _technically_ yes, but ocean acidity is a far bigger effect, and that's
what the GP was confused about.

~~~
mkempe
Please stop moving goalposts, and quit denying scientific facts.

1\. As described above, CO2 feeds symbiont algae and thereby drives the growth
of coral reefs.

2\. The algae and polyps have been shown to be constantly adapting to
variations in local pH levels and water temperature. [1] As one would expect
based on a) understanding the theory of evolution; b) observed "bleaching" and
re-colonizations of corals for wider, mid- to long-term variations; and c) 20+
million years of corals thriving under a wide range of water temperatures, CO2
levels, and pH levels.

[1] Active modulation of the calcifying fluid carbonate chemistry (δ11B, B/Ca)
and seasonally invariant coral calcification at sub-tropical limits (2017)
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14066-9](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-14066-9)

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southern_cross
Two stories just out of HWU, both related to the uptake of CO2 by the oceans
and apparently pointing in opposite directions.

[https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/news/new-research-reveals-
ocean-w...](https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/news/new-research-reveals-ocean-waves-
play.htm)

[https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/news/invisible-barrier-on-
ocean-s...](https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/news/invisible-barrier-on-ocean-
surface-reduces.htm)

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petermcneeley
Tangential: Biosphere 2 had CO2 absorption issues with the concrete of the
superstructure.
[http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/bio3/2000projects/carroll_d_...](http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/bio3/2000projects/carroll_d_walker_e/whatwentwrong.html)

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0xcafecafe
This is just depressing. Just a couple weeks back we saw the article about
plastic being found at the botton of the Mariana trench and now this.

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xstartup
Peeing from sufficient height also traps CO2. Can anyone confirm?

