Rapid climate change and the role of the Southern Ocean

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/articles/rapid-climate-change-and-the-role-of-the-southern-ocean-10671.html

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Rapid climate change and the role of the Southern Ocean[/font]

08 April 2013

[font size=4]Scientists from Cardiff University and the University of Barcelona have discovered new clues about past rapid climate change.

The research, published this month in the journal Nature Geoscience, concludes that oceanographic reorganisations and biological processes are linked to the supply of airborne dust in the Southern Ocean and this connection played a key role in past rapid fluctuations of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, an important component in the climate system.[/font]

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Dr Martin Ziegler, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, explained: "The deep ocean is by far the largest pool of available carbon on short timescales. In the Southern Ocean, water from the deep rises to the sea surface and comes in contact with the atmosphere. These waters will release their carbon to the atmosphere unless marine phytoplankton captures this carbon through photosynthesis and transports it back into the deep when it dies and sinks. The efficiency of this biological activity in the Southern Ocean is thought to depend on the input of nutrients, namely iron, contained in wind blown dust. It is also this efficiency that determines the strength of chemical stratification in the Southern Ocean."

Professor Ian Hall, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, added: "Our study finds large changes in chemical stratification of the Southern Ocean not only across the shifts from ice ages to warm interglacial conditions, but also on more rapid, millennial timescales. However, changes in dust flux on these short timescales are much smaller. This could suggest that the biological response to a change in dust input is much more sensitive when the dust flux is relatively low such as it is today. This iron fertilization process might be therefore more important than previously thought"

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1782

[FirstLight]

1. K&R

Thanks for this info...even if many here aren't paying attention. It's also a little hard to understand sometimes, but the essence is the same across the board, things are gonna get wild & wooly up in here!

[happyslug]

2. Could this explain the "Madhouse Century"???

The "Madhouse Century" theory:

http://www.imaja.com/as/environment/can/journal/madhousecentury.html

Basically, in the Mad House century of about 120,000 years ago, world wide sea level went up about 20 feet, then within a century went down 50 feet and the Ice Age was off and running at dull steam.

The best theory that supports what happened 120,000 years ago is that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed, raising world wide ocean levels about 20 feet, This also exposing West Antarctica land mass to the open air and seas, thus permitting massive influx of iron and other chemicals into the Southern Oceans AND to the "Ocean Deserts" just north of the Southern Ocean.

An Ocean desert is that part of the Pacific and Indian Oceans that has no plankton growing in it. The reason is believed, that while these areas have plenty of water and sunlight, plankton closer to shore absorb all the trace elements needed by the Plankton to survive, and thus none are left when you enter these ocean deserts.

With the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, a huge amount of Iron and other elements flow into the Southern Ocean. Its circular motion around Antarctic is broken and water with the additional Iron and other elements flow into the Ocean deserts. This permits these deserts to bloom, and that blooming means removal of Carbon Dioxide from the Air as the Plankton convert sunlight into food it can eat (and that production requires Carbon Dioxide). Thus you see a slow (50-100 years) decrease in world wide temperatures as the amount of Carbon Dioxide declines in the Atmosphere. This leads to the reestablishment of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, but also an overall chilling of the air throughout the world.

Thus we may see a one two punch with global warming. A massive increase in world wide temperature followed by a massive increase in ocean levels, followed by an even more drastic DECLINE in temperatures and ocean levels (and reduction in farmlands as Glaciers expand and much of productive farm land in Russia, Europe and the US disappear as each get to cold to grow crops.