Seas to absorb greenhouse gas, but food chain hit - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Seas to absorb greenhouse gas, but food chain hit
Sun Nov 11, 2007 1:25pm EST

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - Tiny ocean plankton can reduce global warming
by soaking up unexpectedly large amounts of carbon dioxide but
their carbon-bloated cells might damage marine food chains,
scientists said on Sunday.

Experiments in a Norwegian fjord showed that plankton -- small
drifting plants or creatures -- could absorb up to 39 percent
more carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, in seawater pens
mimicking projected climate conditions to 2150.

"This is a massive and surprising change in the carbon content
of these organisms," said Ulf Riebesell, a marine biologist at the
Leibnitz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany, who led
the German and Norwegian experiments.

-snip-

"What appears to be a blessing for the atmospheric greenhouse
effect may prove to be a curse for deep ocean ecosystems," the
Leibnitz Institute said in a statement.

When plankton die and sink, their decomposition consumes oxygen
vital to marine animals living in the depths. "This will enlarge the
parts of the oceans that have very little oxygen," Reibesell told
Reuters.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL0923046020071111

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...and oxygen is just the beginning.

[greenman3610]

1. is this how a canfield ocean starts?

[Systematic Chaos]

2. Um, yeah.

Better start training your body to handle that sulfur dioxide while you still can. :eyes:

[hatrack]

3. Hypoxic to Anoxic to Canfield . . .

Oops!