Tiny plankton can play a major role in CO2 storage in the oceans September 24, 2015 Credit: Tiago Fioreze / Wikipedia Tiny zooplankton animals, each no bigger than a grain of rice, may be playing a huge part in regulating climate change, research involving the University of Strathclyde has found. The zooplankton group, known as copepods, build up carbon-rich lipids as a nutritional reserve during late summer whilst they are in the surface waters 1 of the ocean. Then, they use these reserves to survive their winter hibernation period which they spend at around one mile down in the deep ocean 2 , out of contact with the atmosphere.
This means that the CO 2 released by the hibernating copepods as they use up their lipid reserves does not find its way back into the atmosphere but is instead stored in the depths, where it can remain for thousands of years. The team which undertook the research 3 have called this process the 'copepod lipid pump'. The research showed that one copepod species alone, Calanus finmarchicus , carries between one million and three million tonnes of CO 2 from the atmosphere into the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean each year.
Professor Michael Heath, of Strathclyde's Department of Mathematics & Statistics, was a partner in the research. He said: "The deep over-wintering of these copepods 4 has been known about for a while but this is the first time that their role in carbon storage has been measured. The results could double the estimates of how much carbon dioxide is being absorbed by the North Atlantic Ocean. "The role of CO 2 in climate change 5 and the urgent need for action to reduce emissions is increasingly well understood.
What is particularly important about our results is that the role of the lipid pump, is not taken into account in the existing climate models used by the IPCC. We need to look into this further to find out whether the same thing is happening in other oceans of the world, and how it can be included in the next generation of IPCC models. "These copepod migrations don't provide a solution to the emissions problem, but our results are certainly part of the process of building up a better understanding of how the planet is responding to increasing CO2 levels". The research has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
It was led at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and also involved the University of Copenhagen. Explore further: The last ice age 6 More from Earth 7 Related Stories The last ice age 8 July 3, 2014 A team of scientists has discovered that a giant 'burp' of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the North Pacific Ocean helped trigger the end of last ice age, around 17,000 years ago. Carbon release from ocean helped end the Ice Age 9 February 11, 2015 A release of carbon dioxide from the deep ocean helped bring an end to the last Ice Age, according to new research led by the University of Southampton.
Researchers investigate increased ocean acidification 10 August 3, 2015 The primary cause of global ocean acidification is the oceanic absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere. Although this absorption helps to mitigate some of the effects of anthropogenic climate change, it has resulted in a reduction ... CO2 removal cannot save the oceans if we pursue business as usual 11 August 3, 2015 Greenhouse-gas emissions from human activities do not only cause rapid warming of the seas, but also ocean acidification at an unprecedented rate.
Artificial carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere has been proposed ... Copepod migrations are important for the ocean's uptake of CO2 12 September 9, 2015 In a scientific article recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers from DTU Aqua, the University of Copenhagen and the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, have shown that the ... Omega-3's are vital for a healthy ocean 13 September 17, 2015 A new study published this week in Nature's Scientific Reports reveals the importance of omega-3 fatty acids for the health of the ocean.
Recommended for you How fossil corals can shed light on the Earth's past climate 14 September 24, 2015 In a paper published today in Science, researchers from the University of Bristol describe how they used radiocarbon measured in deep-sea fossil corals to shed light on carbon dioxide (CO2) levels during the Earth's last ... Tiny plankton can play a major role in CO2 storage in the oceans 15 September 24, 2015 Tiny zooplankton animals, each no bigger than a grain of rice, may be playing a huge part in regulating climate change, research involving the University of Strathclyde has found. Global warming: Are trees going on strike? 16 September 23, 2015 Trees, crucial absorbers of climate-harming carbon dioxide gas, may finally be balking at an ever-earlier spring season brought on by global warming, researchers said Wednesday.
Nearly half of US seafood supply is wasted 17 September 23, 2015 As much as 47 percent of the edible U.S. seafood supply is lost each year, mainly from consumer waste, new research from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) suggests. Economist suggests world needs to price coal correctly to reduce reliance on it (Update) 18 September 18, 2015 (Phys.org) Economist Ottmar Edenhofer with Technische Universit t Berlin, has published a Perspectives piece in the journal Science outlining the reasons for coal dominance as a means for producing electricity around the ...
Researchers reveal when global warming first appeared 19 September 22, 2015 The indications of climate change are all around us today but now researchers have revealed for the first time when and where the first clear signs of global warming appeared in the temperature record and where those signals ...
7 comments Adjust slider to filter visible comments by rank Display comments: newest first 20 Eddy Courant 21 not rated yet 3 hours ago Been going on since The Great Oxygenation Event. It's where our oil comes from. gkam 22 1 / 5 (2) 3 hours ago It is as if we put Humanity in a closed location and let the Carbon Dioxide build up until it starts to become toxic to us.
As the copepods put the CO2 into the seas, it increases the acidity, and now threatens their existence. They are having a hard time making carbonate shells. If we kill the copepods at the bottom of the food chain, we are gone, too.
gkam 23 1 / 5 (2) 2 hours ago Ah, a one rating. Some folk do not care if we kill the Earth and ourselves, apparently. TheGhostofOtto1923 24 3 / 5 (2) 1 hour ago But we do care about liars and fabricators posting on this site.
Better to assume your posts are all crap and 1/5 you, than going to the trouble of checking them all. Youre not the champion of these causes that you think you are. denglish 25 1 / 5 (1) 26 minutes ago It is as if we put Humanity in a closed location and let the Carbon Dioxide build up until it starts to become toxic to us.
As the copepods put the CO2 into the seas, it increases the acidity, and now threatens their existence. They are having a hard time making carbonate shells. If we kill the copepods at the bottom of the food chain, we are gone, too.
That is absolute nonsense. This article shows: 1. That the Earth has long had countless self-regulating components.
2. The constant discovery of new things shows that our knowledge of climate science is in its infancy; socio-economic policies based on incomplete science is one of the greatest dangers facing human prosperity *ever*. Regarding Ocean Acidification, PH goes up, PH goes down.
It is a symptom of a living planet. Observe, history of oceanic acidities. Notice the flux: http://www.skepti...vels.gif 26 gkam 27 1 / 5 (2) 25 minutes ago I suggest the skeptics look up the fate of the copepods and think what means to the rest of the Earth.
TheGhostofOtto1923 28 not rated yet 6 minutes ago I suggest the skeptics look up the fate of the copepods and think what means to the rest of the Earth. Why dont you provide links and excerpts to support what you say like everybody else? I know- It means you are lazy or inconsiderate or you have the attention span of a drugged-up gnat or youre just making shit up as usual, which is most likely the case.
You see why people here want you gone? Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute.
Read more 29 30 Click here 31 to reset your password. Sign in to get notified via email when new comments are made. Tiny plankton can play a major role in CO2 storage in the oceans September 24, 2015 Credit: Tiago Fioreze / Wikipedia Tiny zooplankton animals, each no bigger than a grain of rice, may be playing a huge part in regulating climate change, research involving the University of Strathclyde has found.
The zooplankton group, known as copepods, build up carbon-rich lipids as a nutritional reserve during late summer whilst they are in the surface waters 32 of the ocean. Then, they use these reserves to survive their winter hibernation period which they spend at around one mile down in the deep ocean 33 , out of contact with the atmosphere. This means that the CO 2 released by the hibernating copepods as they use up their lipid reserves does not find its way back into the atmosphere but is instead stored in the depths, where it can remain for thousands of years.
The team which undertook the research 34 have called this process the 'copepod lipid pump'. The research showed that one copepod species alone, Calanus finmarchicus , carries between one million and three million tonnes of CO 2 from the atmosphere into the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean each year. Professor Michael Heath, of Strathclyde's Department of Mathematics & Statistics, was a partner in the research.
He said: "The deep over-wintering of these copepods 35 has been known about for a while but this is the first time that their role in carbon storage has been measured. The results could double the estimates of how much carbon dioxide is being absorbed by the North Atlantic Ocean. "The role of CO 2 in climate change 36 and the urgent need for action to reduce emissions is increasingly well understood. What is particularly important about our results is that the role of the lipid pump, is not taken into account in the existing climate models used by the IPCC.
We need to look into this further to find out whether the same thing is happening in other oceans of the world, and how it can be included in the next generation of IPCC models. "These copepod migrations don't provide a solution to the emissions problem, but our results are certainly part of the process of building up a better understanding of how the planet is responding to increasing CO2 levels". The research has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . It was led at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and also involved the University of Copenhagen.
Explore further: The last ice age 37 More from Earth 38 Related Stories The last ice age 39 July 3, 2014 A team of scientists has discovered that a giant 'burp' of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the North Pacific Ocean helped trigger the end of last ice age, around 17,000 years ago. Carbon release from ocean helped end the Ice Age 40 February 11, 2015 A release of carbon dioxide from the deep ocean helped bring an end to the last Ice Age, according to new research led by the University of Southampton. Researchers investigate increased ocean acidification 41 August 3, 2015 The primary cause of global ocean acidification is the oceanic absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Although this absorption helps to mitigate some of the effects of anthropogenic climate change, it has resulted in a reduction ... CO2 removal cannot save the oceans if we pursue business as usual 42 August 3, 2015 Greenhouse-gas emissions from human activities do not only cause rapid warming of the seas, but also ocean acidification at an unprecedented rate. Artificial carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere has been proposed ...
Copepod migrations are important for the ocean's uptake of CO2 43 September 9, 2015 In a scientific article recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers from DTU Aqua, the University of Copenhagen and the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, have shown that the ... Omega-3's are vital for a healthy ocean 44 September 17, 2015 A new study published this week in Nature's Scientific Reports reveals the importance of omega-3 fatty acids for the health of the ocean. Recommended for you How fossil corals can shed light on the Earth's past climate 45 September 24, 2015 In a paper published today in Science, researchers from the University of Bristol describe how they used radiocarbon measured in deep-sea fossil corals to shed light on carbon dioxide (CO2) levels during the Earth's last ...
Tiny plankton can play a major role in CO2 storage in the oceans 46 September 24, 2015 Tiny zooplankton animals, each no bigger than a grain of rice, may be playing a huge part in regulating climate change, research involving the University of Strathclyde has found. Global warming: Are trees going on strike? 47 September 23, 2015 Trees, crucial absorbers of climate-harming carbon dioxide gas, may finally be balking at an ever-earlier spring season brought on by global warming, researchers said Wednesday. Nearly half of US seafood supply is wasted 48 September 23, 2015 As much as 47 percent of the edible U.S.
seafood supply is lost each year, mainly from consumer waste, new research from the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) suggests. Economist suggests world needs to price coal correctly to reduce reliance on it (Update) 49 September 18, 2015 (Phys.org) Economist Ottmar Edenhofer with Technische Universit t Berlin, has published a Perspectives piece in the journal Science outlining the reasons for coal dominance as a means for producing electricity around the ... Researchers reveal when global warming first appeared 50 September 22, 2015 The indications of climate change are all around us today but now researchers have revealed for the first time when and where the first clear signs of global warming appeared in the temperature record and where those signals ...
7 comments Adjust slider to filter visible comments by rank Display comments: newest first 51 Eddy Courant 52 not rated yet 3 hours ago Been going on since The Great Oxygenation Event. It's where our oil comes from. gkam 53 1 / 5 (2) 3 hours ago It is as if we put Humanity in a closed location and let the Carbon Dioxide build up until it starts to become toxic to us.
As the copepods put the CO2 into the seas, it increases the acidity, and now threatens their existence. They are having a hard time making carbonate shells. If we kill the copepods at the bottom of the food chain, we are gone, too.
gkam 54 1 / 5 (2) 2 hours ago Ah, a one rating. Some folk do not care if we kill the Earth and ourselves, apparently. TheGhostofOtto1923 55 3 / 5 (2) 1 hour ago But we do care about liars and fabricators posting on this site.
Better to assume your posts are all crap and 1/5 you, than going to the trouble of checking them all. Youre not the champion of these causes that you think you are. denglish 56 1 / 5 (1) 26 minutes ago It is as if we put Humanity in a closed location and let the Carbon Dioxide build up until it starts to become toxic to us.
As the copepods put the CO2 into the seas, it increases the acidity, and now threatens their existence. They are having a hard time making carbonate shells. If we kill the copepods at the bottom of the food chain, we are gone, too.
That is absolute nonsense. This article shows: 1. That the Earth has long had countless self-regulating components.
2. The constant discovery of new things shows that our knowledge of climate science is in its infancy; socio-economic policies based on incomplete science is one of the greatest dangers facing human prosperity *ever*. Regarding Ocean Acidification, PH goes up, PH goes down.
It is a symptom of a living planet. Observe, history of oceanic acidities. Notice the flux: http://www.skepti...vels.gif 57 gkam 58 1 / 5 (2) 25 minutes ago I suggest the skeptics look up the fate of the copepods and think what means to the rest of the Earth.
TheGhostofOtto1923 59 not rated yet 6 minutes ago I suggest the skeptics look up the fate of the copepods and think what means to the rest of the Earth. Why dont you provide links and excerpts to support what you say like everybody else? I know- It means you are lazy or inconsiderate or you have the attention span of a drugged-up gnat or youre just making shit up as usual, which is most likely the case.
You see why people here want you gone? Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute.
Read more 60 61 Click here to reset your password.
Sign in to get notified via email when new comments are made. 62 References ^ surface waters (phys.org) ^ deep ocean (phys.org) ^ research (phys.org) ^ copepods (phys.org) ^ climate change (phys.org) ^ The last ice age (phys.org) ^ Earth (www.physicsforums.com) ^ The last ice age (phys.org) ^ Carbon release from ocean helped end the Ice Age (phys.org) ^ Researchers investigate increased ocean acidification (phys.org) ^ CO2 removal cannot save the oceans if we pursue business as usual (phys.org) ^ Copepod migrations are important for the ocean's uptake of CO2 (phys.org) ^ Omega-3's are vital for a healthy ocean (phys.org) ^ How fossil corals can shed light on the Earth's past climate (phys.org) ^ Tiny plankton can play a major role in CO2 storage in the oceans (phys.org) ^ Global warming: Are trees going on strike? (phys.org) ^ Nearly half of US seafood supply is wasted (phys.org) ^ Economist suggests world needs to price coal correctly to reduce reliance on it (Update) (phys.org) ^ Researchers reveal when global warming first appeared (phys.org) ^ newest first (phys.org) ^ Eddy Courant (sciencex.com) ^ gkam (sciencex.com) ^ gkam (sciencex.com) ^ TheGhostofOtto1923 (sciencex.com) ^ denglish (sciencex.com) ^ http://www.skepticalscience.com/images/CO2_vs_pH_levels.gif (www.skepticalscience.com) ^ gkam (sciencex.com) ^ TheGhostofOtto1923 (sciencex.com) ^ sign in (sciencex.com) ^ Read more (sciencex.com) ^ Click here (sciencex.com) ^ surface waters (phys.org) ^ deep ocean (phys.org) ^ research (phys.org) ^ copepods (phys.org) ^ climate change (phys.org) ^ The last ice age (phys.org) ^ Earth (www.physicsforums.com) ^ The last ice age (phys.org) ^ Carbon release from ocean helped end the Ice Age (phys.org) ^ Researchers investigate increased ocean acidification (phys.org) ^ CO2 removal cannot save the oceans if we pursue business as usual (phys.org) ^ Copepod migrations are important for the ocean's uptake of CO2 (phys.org) ^ Omega-3's are vital for a healthy ocean (phys.org) ^ How fossil corals can shed light on the Earth's past climate (phys.org) ^ Tiny plankton can play a major role in CO2 storage in the oceans (phys.org) ^ Global warming: Are trees going on strike? (phys.org) ^ Nearly half of US seafood supply is wasted (phys.org) ^ Economist suggests world needs to price coal correctly to reduce reliance on it (Update) (phys.org) ^ Researchers reveal when global warming first appeared (phys.org) ^ newest first (phys.org) ^ Eddy Courant (sciencex.com) ^ gkam (sciencex.com) ^ gkam (sciencex.com) ^ TheGhostofOtto1923 (sciencex.com) ^ denglish (sciencex.com) ^ http://www.skepticalscience.com/images/CO2_vs_pH_levels.gif (www.skepticalscience.com) ^ gkam (sciencex.com) ^ TheGhostofOtto1923 (sciencex.com) ^ sign in (sciencex.com) ^ Read more (sciencex.com) ^ Click here (sciencex.com)
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