The results of a recent study published in the journal Nature, led by an international team including a biologist from the (French) National Center for Scientific Research, indicated that the ability of the oceans to store carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere is about 20% greater than the estimates contained in the latest report of the Intergovernmental Group. concerned with climate change.
The role of plankton in absorbing carbon
Through the study, scientists looked at the role that plankton plays in the natural transfer of carbon from surface waters to the sea floor, and found that these plankton devour carbon dioxide, and when they grow, they convert it into organic tissue through the process of photosynthesis, and when they die, part of the plankton turns into molecules. Known as “sea ice”.
Being denser than seawater, these molecules sink to the seafloor, thus storing carbon there and providing essential nutrients to a wide range of deep-sea organisms from tiny bacteria to deep-sea fish.
By analyzing data collected from around the world by ships since the 1970s, the team of seven scientists was able to digitally map flows of organic matter throughout the world’s oceans.
New estimate
The study reached a new estimate that the output of carbon storage capacity reached 15 metric gigatons per year, an increase of about 20% compared to previous studies (11 metric gigatons per year) published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its 2021 report.
This reassessment of the oceans’ storage capacity represents a major advance in our understanding of carbon exchanges between the atmosphere and the oceans at the global level.
While the team stresses that this absorption process occurs over tens of thousands of years and is therefore not enough to offset the massive increase in carbon dioxide emissions caused by industrial activity worldwide since 1750, the study highlights the importance of the ocean ecosystem as a Environmental is a major player in the long-term regulation of the global climate.
