LIFESCI 2H03 Study Guide - Final Guide: Antarctic Bottom Water, Gaseous Diffusion, Geochemistry

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Life Sciences
• Course: LIFESCI 2H03
• Professor: Luc Bernier

Document Summary

The release of fossil fuel co2 to the atmosphere by human activity has been implicated as the predominant cause of recent global climate change. The ocean plays a crucial role in mitigating the effects of this perturbation to the climate system, sequestering 20 to 35 per cent of anthropogenic co2 emission. Our results indicate that ocean uptake of anthropogenic co2 has increased sharply since the 1950s, with a small decline in the rate of increase in the last few decades. We estimate the inventory and uptake rate of anthropogenic co2 in 2008 at 140 25 pg c and 2. 3 0. 6 pg c yr 1, respectively. We find that the southern ocean is the primary conduit by which this co2 enters the ocean (contributing over 40 per cent of the anthropogenic co2 inventory in the ocean in 2008). Our results also suggest that the terrestrial biosphere was a source of co2 until the 1940s, subsequently turning into a sink.