All articles tagged with #carbon cycle
Coral reefs have played a crucial role in regulating Earth's climate for over 250 million years by influencing ocean alkalinity and carbon absorption, with their rise and fall affecting climate recovery times and marine evolution; current reef decline due to human activity may impact this natural climate regulation, but recovery would take thousands to hundreds of thousands of years.
A new study uncovers a feedback mechanism in Earth's carbon cycle that could cause global warming to overshoot and trigger an ice age, suggesting Earth's climate system can overreact and potentially plunge the planet into deep freeze, especially under past conditions of low atmospheric oxygen. However, current higher oxygen levels may dampen this effect, but the risk remains if warming continues. The findings highlight the importance of limiting ongoing climate change.
Scientists have discovered that the Arctic Ocean was a major source of greenhouse gases during a past rapid warming event 56 million years ago, involving a switch from methane-consuming microbes that produce bicarbonate to those that produce CO2, potentially contributing to ocean acidification and warming. This historical methane cycle shift could recur today as Arctic warming and oxygen levels change, possibly accelerating climate change.
Researchers have found that during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum 56 million years ago, a switch in methane-consuming microbes in the Arctic Ocean led to increased methane release, which contributed to rapid global warming. This historical event provides insights into how similar microbial shifts today could accelerate climate change as Arctic conditions warm and oxygen levels decrease.
Earth may have a hidden, supercharged 'thermostat' involving the phosphorus cycle that could cause it to overcorrect for climate change, potentially leading to the next ice age arriving on time instead of being delayed, by efficiently burying carbon in the seafloor and accelerating cooling processes.
Earth may respond to human CO2 emissions by rapidly burying carbon in the seafloor through a newly discovered 'supercharged' thermostat linked to the phosphorus cycle, potentially causing the next ice age to occur on time instead of being delayed, although this mechanism does not mitigate current global warming effects.
New research suggests that Earth's climate regulation involves complex ocean feedback loops that could overcorrect global warming, potentially triggering an ice age in the distant future, although current human-induced warming is unlikely to cause such a rapid cooling. The study highlights the importance of understanding Earth's natural climate mechanisms and emphasizes the need to limit ongoing warming.
A UC Riverside study suggests that current global warming could trigger a future ice age due to natural climate feedback mechanisms involving rock weathering and oceanic processes, but human-induced rapid warming may disrupt these cycles, emphasizing the urgent need to limit current emissions to prevent extreme climate shifts.
Scientists discovered coccolithophores, tiny marine organisms, thriving in the cold Antarctic Ocean, challenging previous assumptions and highlighting their role in sequestering atmospheric CO2, which could have significant implications for understanding and combating climate change.
A study shows that thawing permafrost after the last ice age significantly contributed to rising atmospheric CO2 levels, potentially accounting for nearly half of the increase, with natural processes being disrupted by human activities over the past 250 years.
Oceanographers have discovered that the bright turquoise patch in the Southern Ocean, previously thought to be caused by coccolithophores, is actually due to dense populations of diatoms, challenging previous assumptions about microorganism distribution and their role in the carbon cycle in cold waters.
The article discusses the potential for human-induced climate change to trigger a sixth major mass extinction, drawing parallels with past catastrophic events like the Permian extinction caused by massive volcanic eruptions and CO2 overloads, emphasizing that the rapid rate of current CO2 emissions could push Earth beyond its capacity to recover, leading to irreversible damage to global biodiversity.
A study published in Nature Climate Change reveals significant shifts in Antarctic phytoplankton communities over nearly three decades, driven by reduced sea ice and iron availability, leading to a decline in diatoms crucial for carbon sequestration. These changes threaten to disrupt the marine food web and accelerate global climate change by decreasing the ocean's ability to store carbon, highlighting the importance of long-term data collection in understanding climate impacts.
Scientists have identified that the bright, glowing patches of water near Antarctica are caused by blooms of silica-rich diatoms and calcium carbonate–bearing coccolithophores, which play a crucial role in the ocean's carbon cycle and climate regulation. This discovery, made through combined satellite and field research, enhances understanding of polar ecosystems and improves climate models, revealing a more complex and resilient ecosystem than previously thought.
A recent study published in Nature reveals that ancient carbon stored in soils and rocks is leaking into the atmosphere through rivers at a much higher rate than previously thought, potentially significantly impacting global climate change efforts and requiring a reassessment of the global carbon cycle.