. The release of carbon dioxide deep within the ocean contributed to the warming of the earth. Their study is expected to help scientists understand the impact of the ocean on climate change and carbon cycles. Gianluca Marino works for The Australian National University’s Research School of Earth Sciences. She said that the ocean contains 60 more carbon than the air. This is because it drives carbon dioxide variation in nature. The ocean can quickly exchange carbon with the atmosphere. Carbon deep within Antarctic waters has ended the last Ice Age. Image: Australian National University. The paper has been published by Nature. Citation below. The atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) have changed from 185 parts/million (ppm), during the last Ice Age, to 280ppm in warmer times over the past thousand years. The 1850, level of CO2 has risen to 400ppm. More than 50 millions of cubic kilometers of ice once covered North America and Scandinavia. It melted away about 19,000 and 10,000 years ago. This period saw enough water released to lift the sea level up by 130 metres. The scientists used boron to reconstruct CO2 levels in ancient times. This element was found in microfossils that were recovered from the ocean floor. They then compared these levels with CO2 measured in Antarctica’s ice cores. Researchers found that the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide dissolved in oceans from tiny organisms living at the sea surface of the Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean at the end the last ice age was significantly higher than the current levels. Miguel Martinez-Boti (University of Southampton, England) was the joint lead author. He said that the ocean released carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This was due to weaker mixing of ocean and surface during the last Ice Age, which kept carbon in the ocean floor for many thousands of years. The team found that carbon from the Southern Ocean was released into the atmosphere at the conclusion of the last Ice Age. Professor Gabin Foster from the University of Southampton was co-author. She suggested that other oceans such as the Pacific Ocean could have had a similar function. Dr. Foster said, “Our results support the primary role of the Southern Ocean. However, we are still not sure the whole story.” New data shows that atmospheric variations in carbon dioxide can be linked to ocean carbon. “We recently observed that the oceans store more than 30 percent of human fossil fuel emissions in recent years.” Interface journal published research by scientists from University of Glasgow, Scotland. They found that mussels have been becoming more fragile as the oceans become acidic due to climate change. Our seas’ pH level is expected to drop from 8. today to 7.7 at the end of this century. Citation: “Boron Isotope Evidence for Oceanic Carbon dioxide Leakage During the Last Deglaciation,” M. A. Martinez Boti, G. Marino and G. L. Foster. P. Ziveri. M. J. Henehan. J. W. B. Rae. P. G. Mortyn & D. Vance. Nature 518, 219-222, (12 February 2015), doi: 10. 1038/nature14155.
