Hey fellows!
To wrap up past weeks' discussions here is a video. It overviews components of the carbon cycle in relation to the oceans. Here are the major points that relate to this blog's issues.
According to NASA, oceans would contain 50 times the amount of atmospheric carbon, making their bed the largest carbon reservoir.
They play a key role in the carbon cycle, to the extent that they have been slowing down global warming. By absorbing carbon, they are mitigating the effects of fossil fuel combustion.
I used to ask myself why the intensive use of fossil fuel led to what seemed to me a gradual, slow change. The consequence seemed relatively small in comparison to the proportion of the underlying cause. I guess one reason to that would be the ocean's carbon uptake.
How then can one measure the effects of climate change on the oceans? To what extent have they alleviated rising CO2 levels? Monitoring the oceans is extremely difficult. Satellites help in this regard (NASA). However they are currently unable to monitor most deep oceans' properties. Currently, remote sensing is far more efficient at gathering terrestrial data than oceanic data.
The video also introduces what I will talk about next: the consequences of increasing levels of atmospheric carbon for ocean acidification and marine life.
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