Quote:
Originally Posted by svenrufus  Simple really, it's either trees or plankton - on balance, probably plankton. All we need to do is to stop producing it at levels faster than our friends in the sea can absorb it. How to do that is the real $25million question.
Incidentally, does anyone know how fast CO2 is removed from the atmosphere by the sea/plankton? Had a go at googling it, but didn't come up with much of use. |
I managed to find these facts after a bit of research.... Dont know if they answer your question or not......
The passive uptake and release of carbon dioxide is not as important, however, as the active uptake of carbon dioxide by the phytoplankton in photosynthesis and its active release in respiration by the whole community of marine organisms, which amount to about 100 Gt a year each way (Oceans and global warming, this series).
Oceans absorb carbon dioxide naturally in ongoing processes that are very slow. However, the oceans’ capacity for carbon dioxide is quite large—oceans already take up one-third of the carbon emitted by human activity, which is about 2 billion metric tons each year.
"Plankton are as important as plants and trees in the take-up of carbon. Scientists estimate that about half the 800 billion tonnes of CO2 put into the atmosphere by mankind since the start of the industrial revolution has been soaked up by the sea. Much of the carbon is fixed in the shells of creatures called coccolithphores, the tiny plankton whose bodies make up the white cliffs of Dover. They live on the ocean surface in trillions and when they die their shells sink to the bottom taking the carbon with them."