Carbon dioxide
Fossilized Deep-Sea Corals Reveal Ancient Ocean Circulation Patterns
An increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations helped end the last ice age. But what caused the carbon dioxide increase in the first place? A team of scientists used the fossilized skeletons of deep-sea corals to find out. Amanda SemlerI’m a PhD candidate in Earth System Science at Stanford University, and I study how microbes […]
How will climate change affect the Southern Ocean ecosystems?
Changes in the Southern Ocean can affect global climate, and understanding the Southern Ocean’s response to climate change helps us better predict future climate. A team of researchers have looked into this question to predict how human impact on Earth’s climate will affect the Southern Ocean and its ecosystem in the near future. Jiwoon ParkI […]
Reduction in Deforestation Influencing Atmospheric CO2
Since 2000, atmospheric CO2 hasn’t been rising as quickly as we expected. It may be because plants on land have been taking up more CO2 than before – but why the change? A group of terrestrial biogeochemists show that recent deforestation rates may hold the answer. Julia DohnerJulia is a PhD student at Scripps Institution […]
More Intense Summer to Winter Swings in Oceanic Dissolved CO2
Ocean CO2 levels vary depending on the time of year. Landschützer and his colleagues are the first to show that human-emitted CO2 is making these seasonal swings more severe, potentially to the detriment of many marine organisms. Julia DohnerJulia is a PhD student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. Her focus is […]
What happens to CO2 levels during El Niño?
Thanks to NASA’s new Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite, we now know when and where CO2 levels change during El Niño, and can pinpoint the culprit of rising CO¬2 levels during El Niño events. Julia DohnerJulia is a PhD student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. Her focus is on biogeochemistry, which, as […]
New Evidence of Erosion, Weathering and CO2 Together Regulating Glacier Formation
Ice cover on earth extends and recedes over thousands of years. But what drives these fluctuations? Moreover, what guarantees that our planet never settles into a single permanent state? Using samples of water from glaciers, Torres and his colleagues show that chemical reactions occurring on rocks might hold part of the answer. Julia DohnerJulia is […]
Carbon Dioxide In and Methane Out: the Surprising Chemistry of an Arctic Methane Seep Field
The bad news: coastal frozen sediments in the Arctic are melting and emitting methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. But there is good news: this methane release is accompanied by significant carbon dioxide absorption by seawater, enough to result in a net cooling effect for the atmosphere. Find out how these methane seeps […]
Stressed-out microbes in an acidifying ocean
The ocean is acidifying in response to carbon dioxide emissions, but we are just beginning to learn how this effects the ocean’s most abundant lifeforms – microbes. Michael GrawI’m a 5th year PhD student at Oregon State University researching the microbial ecology of marine sediments – why do we find microbes where they are in […]
Beyond CO2: Chemical Consequences of Our Love Affair with Fossil Fuels
Our world relies heavily on the burning of biological materials such as wood or fossil fuels to harness energy. While we all know that carbon dioxide (CO2) is a harmful byproduct of burning fuel, it’s not the only chemical formed during this process. These chemical byproducts may play a bigger and more complex role in […]
Could increasing CO2 be decreasing human nutrition?
The increase in global atmospheric CO2 concentrations may be causing major food crops, like wheat, to have lower amounts of the nutrients zinc and iron, causing a potential decrease in human health. Kari St.LaurentI received a Ph.D. in oceanography in 2014 from the Graduate School of Oceanography (URI) and am finishing up a post-doc at […]
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