Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Oceans around Antarctica Absorbing Less CO2

Corinne Le Quéré, of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Jena, Germany, and her team "examined atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements taken from points around the world during the past 24 years," and expected to find that the Southern oceans would absorb CO2 at a rate consistent with the growth in emissions.

They discovered, however, that climate change and the Antarctic ozone hole were actually hampering these waters natural ability to mop up rising carbon levels.

The problem appears to be an increase in winds over these oceans, and Le Quéré and her colleagues believe this is a result of "an increase in greenhouse gases and less ozone, which have both changed how heat is distributed in the atmosphere." [ ...more ]

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