A new research revealed the latest impact of carbon dioxide dissolving into ocean water. Namely, the study led by the University of Southampton has shown that the transfer of gases across the sea surface affects the accumulation of greenhouse emissions in the atmosphere.
Led by the University of Southampton, the study was published in Scientific Reports collaboration with UK-based scientists including Dr David Woolf of Heriot-Watt’s Orkney Campus.
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The results of the study “Asymmetric transfer of CO2 across a broken sea surface”, show a much larger imbalance of carbon dioxide than previously suggested, opposes to an assumption in most existing estimates of ocean atmosphere gas transfer.
The research shows that when waves break on the surface, a number of bubbles are injected to depths of at least one metre. These bubbles partially dissolve, releasing carbon dioxide into the water. This causes an increase in the current global estimates of the oceanic sink of carbon dioxide and rates of ocean acidification.
Professor Tim Leighton, Principal Investigator for the study, noted:
If the amount of carbon dioxide dissolving into the seas from the atmosphere exactly balanced the amount leaving the seas and entering the atmosphere we would have a steady state situation. However, our data suggests that in stormy seas the bubble-induced asymmetry in atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolving into the oceans, as compared to previously dissolved carbon dioxide being released back into the atmosphere, is many times greater than scientists currently estimate.
The research team have communicated all of their methods, equipment, computer codes and findings to other groups around the UK for further investigation.
The findings were reported during Heriot-Watt’s Year of the Sea 2018, a calendar of engagement spanning schools, the public, academia, industry collaborators, funders and policy makers.