Climate and Environment
25 October 2019
The oceans play a very important role in controlling Earth’s climate. New research has shown that the planet’s five oceans absorb much more carbon dioxide, one of the gases responsible for the greenhouse effect, than previously thought.
The oceans have absorbed over 90% of the extra heat caused by greenhouse gases from human activity over the last fifty years, and they also help cool the planet by absorbing carbon dioxide, says an article on the website of the European Space Agency (ESA).
Previous research had shown that the world’s five oceans absorb about a quarter of anthropogenic carbon dioxide. In some ocean regions, that quantity of carbon dioxide is stored for centuries, thereby reducing the impact of global warming.
said David Woolf, associate professor at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, and lead author of the study.
Researchers created a database, the Surface Ocean Carbon Dioxide Atlas in order to form a better understanding of the carbon dioxide absorption capacity of the ocean. The database is the result of ongoing international cooperation to collect carbon dioxide data measured at the surface of the ocean at various points around the world.
Source: hirado.hu
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