The carbon stored in the tiny organisms is then “captured” again as marine animals eat them.
As the climate crisis gets worse, oceans — the planet’s greatest carbon sink — can no longer be overlooked.
As part of a new Canada’s National Observer series breaking down climate basics, we’re diving into some common questions about how and why oceans matter to climate change. But despite weathering various problems due to global warming, oceans are still the best hope for mitigating the climate crisis if measures are taken to support them.
Or dead phytoplankton, also known as marine snow, may sink to the seafloor to form thick layers of carbon-rich matter in sediment that could evolve into oil or gas. The ocean also absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere through molecular diffusion, when the soluble gas meets the ocean’s surface. The more CO2 in the atmosphere, the more pressure there is to dissolve. The solubility of CO2 increases in seawater the colder and less salty it is.
Beyond a potential danger to food security, ocean acidification may also pose human health concerns. Research has shown harmful algae produce more toxins and bloom faster in acidic water. Projections suggest oceans’ surface waters could be 150 per cent more acidic by the end of the century than they were before industrialization began in the 1800s.
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