https://phys.org/news/2022-08-oceans-absorb-co2.html
Phytoplankton need light and nutrients to grow. The microscopic algae rarely find both at the same time in sufficient quantities in the ocean…A new study led by the Helmholtz Center Hereon now says: Phytoplankton can migrate back and forth between deeper layers and the water surface. If this were confirmed, it would have enormous consequences for the calculations of the natural carbon pump and thus for current calculations of the carbon budget.
Seas and the ocean are one of our largest carbon sinks. Every year, they absorb about 30% of the CO2 produced by humans and thereby remove it from the atmosphere…“Previous models treat phytoplankton as passive particles, while a lot of evidence suggests that it actively migrates to take up carbon in upper layers via photosynthesis and to store nutrients in lower layers,” says Kai Wirtz…
According to the calculations of the team of authors…by 2100 about 40 gigatons more CO2 per year would be absorbed than current climate models predict. This corresponds to sixty times the carbon emissions of Germany and thus roughly 10% of our carbon budget. That would significantly adjust the world’s climate account upward.
Highest coral cover in central, northern Reef in 36 years www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220803162710.htm
The northern and central Great Barrier Reef have recorded their highest amount of coral cover since the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) began monitoring 36 years ago. However, average coral cover in the southern region decreased due to ongoing crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks.
“Previous models treat phytoplankton as passive particles, while a lot of evidence suggests that it actively migrates to take up carbon in upper layers via photosynthesis and to store nutrients in lower layers,” says Kai Wirtz…
When they die they sink to the bottom of the ocean. That’s how the White Cliffs of Dover were built…
Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk is common throughout Western Europe, where deposits underlie parts of France, and steep cliffs are often seen where they meet the sea in places such as the Dover cliffs on the Kent coast of the English Channel.
Chalk is typically almost pure calcite, CaCO3, with just 2% to 4% of other minerals.
This corresponds to sixty times the carbon emissions of Germany and thus roughly 10% of our carbon budget. That would significantly adjust the world’s climate account upward.
That is not saying much because China, USA and India emissions are huge compared to the small CO2 emissions by Germany:
Total CO2 in Mt in 2020
China — 11680.42 which is 18.3 times > Germany
United States — 4535.30 is 7.1 times > Germany
India — 2411.73 which is 3.8 times > Germany
Russia — 1674.23
Japan — 1061.77
Iran — 690.24
Germany — 636.88
South Korea — 621.47
Saudi Arabia — 588.81
Indonesia — 568.27
Canada - 542.79
10% is a significant input to the model. What would be even more interesting would be the % change in the cycle as CO2 goes up or down as a % of the atmosphere.
Missing a constant is a grave error. Missing a factor is even more egregious to the accuracy of a model.
10% is a significant input to the model. What would be even more interesting would be the % change in the cycle as CO2 goes up or down as a % of the atmosphere.
Over the past few decades as CO2 has increased and things have warmed the percentage of carbon dioxide absorbed has remained pretty much constant. Try searching for ‘airborne fraction’.
From the August reef health update (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority):
In 2025, sea temperatures in the Great Barrier Reef have been warmer than usual. This winter was the third hottest ever recorded, and August was the second hottest…
A total of 288 Reef Health Impact Surveys were completed between 1 – 31 August 2025, across 28 reefs in the Northern, Central and Southern Marine Park regions. Minimal bleaching was reported for all regions.
Crown-of-thorns Starfish (COTS) are affecting many reefs across the Marine Park, with the worst outbreaks in the Southern region (Swain Reefs) and between Port Douglas and Lizard Island.
Global warming is crossing dangerous thresholds sooner than expected with the world’s coral reefs now in an almost irreversible die-off, marking what scientists on Monday described as the first “tipping point” in climate-driven ecosystem collapse.
The last two years were Earth’s warmest on record, with marine heatwaves that stressed 84% of the world’s reefs to the point of bleaching, and, in some cases, death. Coral reefs sustain about a quarter of marine life.
The world is currently on track for about 3.1 degrees C of warming in this century, based on national policies.
It must be remembered that corals have been around for many millions of years and have survived when the earth’s climate was much warmer than today.
In addition, corals can acclimate to warmer temperatures – and already have. For examples, Coles et al. report significantly “higher calcification rates, survivorship, and lower mortality” in Hawaiian corals restudied since 1970.
Globally, Sully et al. report that “In the last decade, the onset of coral bleaching has occurred at significantly higher SSTs (∼0.5 °C) than in the previous decade, suggesting that thermally susceptible genotypes may have declined and/or adapted such that the remaining coral populations now have a higher thermal threshold for bleaching.”
The ranges where corals grow can change over time as the climate changes. Unsurprisingly, the range of coral reefs expand as the ocean warms. Yamano et al. looked at the history of tropicals corals around Japan over a period of 80 years. They found range expansions of up to 14 kilometers per year.
They write “Four major coral species categories, including two key species for reef formation in tropical areas, showed poleward range expansions since the 1930s, whereas no species demonstrated southward range shrinkage or local extinction.”
Just because life is resilient and adaptable through a variety of extremes - which we know it is - doesn’t mean we should want or be indifferent to experiencing these extremes in the near future.
Today we are causing a massive extinction event that will show up in the evolutionary record.
Have these guys noticed the oceans are hotter than expected? Is that because of the carbon capture by the phytoplankton? Higher levels of carbon in the ocean might be very detrimental.
It is the extreme and accelerating rapidity of the recent man-made change since 1850 that distinguishes this event from the natural variability of the past. Instead of changes of a few degrees over the course tens of thousands of years, we are causing changes of a few degrees in a few hundred years and at an accelerating pace unparalleled over the last 65 millions years. Which makes your extreme denialism so dangerous.
Corals – and all current species – have lived through rapid climate change. It is not uncommon. For example, from Botkin et al.
Forecasting the Effects of Global Warming on Biodiversity https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/57/3/227/268444 Until recently, it was thought that past temperature changes were no more rapid than 1 degree Celsius (°C) per millennium, but recent information…indicates that there have been many intervals of very rapid temperature change (e.g., 7°C to 12°C within approximately 50 years)…
Holmes et al. write about the period since the last ice age (the Holocene) just a few thousand years ago…
The largest abrupt climatic events during the Holocene warm stage exceeded the amplitude of those seen in modern observations, while climatic oscillations during the last glacial stage were even more pronounced.
I do not suffer from “extreme denialism”. Climate change is real. What is not real is apocalyptic doomism.
