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Circulation of Carbon Dioxide in the Ocean

Circulation of Carbon Dioxide in the Ocean. It’s clever entrance and escape . Sarah Woodhouse. The Carbon Cycle. Trees breathe too. Into the Sea. The ocean alone contains 36,000 giga tons of carbon mostly in the form of bicarbonate ion which aids in the pH balance.

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Circulation of Carbon Dioxide in the Ocean

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  1. Circulation of Carbon Dioxide in the Ocean It’s clever entrance and escape Sarah Woodhouse

  2. The Carbon Cycle

  3. Trees breathe too

  4. Into the Sea • The ocean alone contains 36,000 giga tons of carbon mostly in the form of bicarbonate ion which aids in the pH balance. • Hurricanes and typhoons near the equator wash away sediments resulting in large amounts of carbon being buried.

  5. 20,000 leagues under the sea: Circulation in the deep ocean • Thermohaline Circulation: circulation below the major wind-driven currents • Key factor: density distribution  function of temperature and salinity

  6. We didn’t start the fire • Heat entering the ocean from the interior = 0.1% • Contributing factors: vents, undersea volcanoes, sea floor spreading • Earth geothermally heats the bottom of the ocean creating small scale circulation

  7. Hydrothermal activity releasing CO2 • Release rate of CO2 is assumed to be proportional to mean spreading rate • Underwater volcanoes release droplets of CO2 • Is the amount of CO2 absorbedby the ocean enough to cause a change in global warming?

  8. Air-sea interface • NOAA’s project determines CO2 transfer • Gas transfer velocity is dependent on small scale surface waves • Essentially, gas transfer velocity is a function of wind speed

  9. Let the wind howl • U10 is the wind speed at 10 meters above the surface, k = transfer velocity • Taken from various tank and buoy experiments

  10. SINK or swim • The ocean acts as a sink to absorb much of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. • Absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide into the mixed layer • Warm surface waters cause stratification which can lead to stagnant waters and a decrease in the uptake of CO2

  11. Sources • Knauss • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11539654 • http://www.po.gso.uri.edu/airsea/heidel.html • http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/pubs/outstand/feel2331/feel2331.shtml • Leovy, Jill. (April 29, 2010). Underwater volcanoes discovered off California coast. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.physorg.com/news191775179.html • http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/OceanCarbon/

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