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Sinking sink

Posted by Olive Heffernan on behalf of Michael Hopkin

It looks as if the Southern Ocean - the great white hope for sucking up mankind's carbon emissions - is slowly losing its efficiency as a carbon sink due to largely unforseen climate feedbacks. It's early days, but this first real-world measurement of a slowdown in the ocean's ability to dissolve carbon could have worrying implications for those currently thinking about how to stabilize atmospheric greenhouse levels.

Read more on the Southern Ocean's reduced CO2 uptake here

Michael Hopkin
News reporter, Nature

Posted by Olive Heffernan on May 22, 2007
Categories: Recent contributors, Climate Science, In the News, Michael Hopkin | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

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This, as will become obvious, is not a strong suit of mine, but my understanding is that surface salinity and upwelling of Atlantic waters were the main drivers of the ACC.

What feedbacks are now affecting the ACC?

Unfortunately the link leads to the subscription site and the copy here at work has yet to cross my desk.

Posted by: Kerry McEvilly | May 26, 2007 06:05 PM

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