Rising Temperatures, Carbon release and uptake and Ocean Acidification



Carbon release and uptake

Once carbon dioxide is emitted to the atmosphere, some of it is absorbed by the oceans and taken up by vegetation, although this storage may be temporary. About 45 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activities in the last 50 years is now stored in the oceans and vegetation. The rest has remained in the air, increasing the atmospheric concentration. It is thus important to understand not only how much carbon dioxide is emitted, but also how much is taken up, over what time scales, and how these sources and “sinks” of carbon dioxide might change as climate continues to . For example, it is known from long records of Earth's climate history that under warmer conditions, carbon tends to be released, for instance, from thawing permafrost, initiating a feedback loop in which more carbon release leads to more warming which leads to further release, and so on.

Global emissions of carbon dioxide have been accelerating. The growth rate increased from 1.3 percent per year in the 1990s to 3.3 percent per year between 2000 and 2006. The increasing emissions of carbon dioxide are the primary cause of the increased concentration of carbon dioxide observed in the atmosphere. There is also evidence that a smaller fraction of the annual human-induced emissions is now being taken up than in the past, leading to a greater fraction remaining in the atmosphere and an accelerating rate of increase in the carbon dioxide concentration.

Ocean acidification

As the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, seawater is becoming less alkaline (its pH is decreasing) through a process generally referred to as ocean acidification. The pH of seawater has decreased significantly since 1750 and is projected to drop much more dramatically by the end of the century if carbon dioxide concentrations continue to increase. Such ocean acidification is essentially irreversible over a time scale of centuries. As discussed in the Ecosystems sector and Coasts region, ocean acidification affects the process of calcification by which living things create shells and skeletons, with substantial negative consequences for coral reefs, mollusks, and some plankton species important to ocean food chains.

Global average temperature and sea level have increased, and precipitation patterns have changed.

Temperatures are rising

Global average surface air temperature has increased substantially since 1970. The estimated change in the average temperature of Earth's surface is based on measurements from thousands of weather stations, ships, and buoys around the world, as well as from satellites. These measurements are independently compiled, analyzed, and processed by different research groups. There are a number of important steps in the data processing. These include identifying and adjusting for the effects of changes in the instruments used to measure temperature, the measurement times and locations, the local environment around the measuring site, and such factors as satellite orbital drift. For instance, the growth of cities can cause localized “urban heat island” effects.

A number of research groups around the world have produced estimates of global-scale changes in surface temperature. The warming trend that is apparent in all of these temperature records is confirmed by other independent observations, such as the melting of Arctic sea ice, the retreat of mountain glaciers on every continent, reductions in the extent of cover, earlier blooming of plants in spring, and increased melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Because snow and ice reflect the Sun's heat, this melting more heat to be absorbed, which causes more melting, resulting in another feedback loop.

and Carbon Dioxide

Global Temperature and Carbon Dioxide

Global annual average temperature (as measured over both land and oceans). Red bars indicate temperatures above and blue bars indicate temperatures below the average temperature for the period 1901-2000. The black line shows atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in parts per million (ppm). While there is a clear longterm global warming trend, each individual year does not show a temperature increase relative to the previous year, and some years show greater changes than others. These year-to-year fluctuations in temperature are due to natural processes, such as the effects of El Niños, La Niñas, and the eruption of large volcanoes.

Additionally, temperature measurements above the surface have been made by weather balloons since the late 1940s, and from satellites since 1979. These measurements show warming of the troposphere, consistent with the surface warming. They also reveal in the stratosphere. This pattern of tropospheric warming and stratospheric cooling agrees with our understanding of how atmospheric temperature would be expected to change in response to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations and the observed depletion of stratospheric ozone.