
Ocean carbon uptake widely underestimated - makerofspoons
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200904090312.htm
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crowbahr
This seems particularly troubling in terms of oceanic acidification, right?
Carbonic acid is formed in the CO2 uptake. As I recall, it's the same method
our bodies use to detect that we need more oxygen: blood acidity from CO2.

So if the ocean is taking up 10% of global petrochemical emissions _more_ as
CO2 doesn't that mean the rate of acidification will be compounding even
faster?

~~~
tuatoru
Worse than just the direct acidification: if we're already seeing the increase
in surface temperatures that we are, with oceans absorbing more carbon than we
thought, what happens when ocean sequestration decreases? It will do that
nonlinearly, we just don't know exactly when.

(It's expected that when the pH of the Southern Ocean gets past a threshold,
phytoplankton (with carbonate shells) will start to be replaced by algae
(without). Dead phytoplankton falling to the ocean floor is a major component
of carbon sequestration by the oceans.)

It suggests that we could pass a threshold and be in for a world of hurt very
soon.

