It is a strategy that could help alleviate the worst effects of global warming. Vital organic matter breaks down over time and releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When the organic matter is combined with nitrogen, they form ammonium, fertilizing phytoplankton, then storing some of that carbon in their bodies. Then when they die and sink to the bottom of the ocean, more carbon dioxide is deposited on them.
When the ocean becomes more productive, it naturally sequesters carbon dioxide. The process of storing the gas, called carbon sequestration, is already taking place on a large scale. Under natural conditions, most of the world’s ocean life consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide. However, phytoplankton consumes carbon dioxide and produce oxygen through photosynthesis as part of their metabolic process.
In the summer, when phytoplankton is abundant, the water turns green and forms a layer on top of the ocean. This layer limits the amount of sunlight that can go through the ocean surface, which reduces photosynthesis and slows down respiration. This process allows for more carbon dioxide to be sequestered in the ocean. However, in winter, there is less organic matter to feed microbes and increase phytoplankton productivity in the sea. When phytoplankton populations are sparse, there is insufficient material to form a green layer on top of the water, so less sunlight is reflected into space and more carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere.
Lingering Effects
Future research will help scientists determine what changes would be made by adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Agreed by many scientists, there are lingering questions about the long-term nature of messing with the climate system. Although carbon dioxide has a long history of being emitted into the atmosphere, it doesn’t necessarily stay there. Specific chemical reactions convert some of it into carbonates, which dissolve to become calcium carbonates. This process could lead to the ocean’s pH dropping and releasing more alkaline ions in the water, naturally removing some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Phytoplankton tends to have a relatively high pH, which helps them absorb nitrogen and eat food that is not nitrate or ammonium. If these reactions continue, more carbon dioxide will become trapped in the ocean instead of being released into the atmosphere, leading to more surface water acidification and less phytoplankton growth overall. More aragonite, a type of carbonate produced by marine organisms, will dissolve and spill over the ocean floor.
This process could also decrease the CO2 released into the atmosphere. However, if other chemical reactions occur in addition to this, then CO 2 levels could increase in the atmosphere again. The long-term impacts on ocean chemistry will be hard to determine because so many factors affect it.
More growth in the ocean means more carbon stored in phytoplankton for a natural carbon sequestration cycle that already exists today. Although pumping carbon dioxide into the sea has many skeptics, research is being done to determine the best way to do this.
Carbon Dioxide
Pumping carbon dioxide into the ocean has many advantages, but one of the biggest is helping to reverse the effects of global warming on the atmosphere. Although carbon dioxide is currently being emitted into the air, it will not stay there. Carbon dioxide dissolves in water and turns into carbonates which eventually dissolve over time, making it easier to absorb by plants. These plants then use it to grow, causing more nitrogen to be released into their bodies which are then returned into the ocean, where they are absorbed again. This cycle has been occurring for millions of years and is a part of Earth’s natural cycle.
Ocean Acidification
The process of ocean acidification occurs when carbon dioxide is added to the ocean. What happens is that CO 2 causes a decrease in the pH of ocean water. Carbonic acid is like baking soda in an oven; it makes things rise because it reacts with water and makes it more acidic. This process can happen naturally but would likely not impact people’s way of life as much if natural processes kept the ocean at a neutral pH.
The amount of carbon dioxide dissolved in the ocean will depend entirely on how much we keep adding to the atmosphere each year and how fast we dig up fossil fuels and put them back into our atmosphere. However, some research suggests that changing the oceans in another way could compensate for some of the effects of acidification. If natural processes were to remove more carbon dioxide, there would be more alkaline ions in the ocean, which would naturally lower the pH.
Natural And Man-made Impacts On The Oceans
Even though carbon dioxide is a natural part of the planet’s cycle, our sources constantly add more to the atmosphere. We now emit 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere yearly. The oceans are turning into carbon sinks, they absorb some of that carbon dioxide, but there is no way to tell if they will continue to be a sink, given enough time. This process has been occurring for millions of years, but it is happening at an alarmingly fast rate. It can take as little as a century for some areas to change from one type of ocean water to another, depending on how much we keep putting into our oceans and atmosphere.
More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will not stop climate change. The ocean will continue to have impacts in the future due to warming temperatures, acidification, and other natural processes. The current rate of ocean acidification is fast enough to cause massive changes within a few centuries without any help from humans, but we can try and slow it down. Scientists will continue to research different ways of reversing this process and using carbon dioxide as a beneficial tool for phytoplankton growth.