Researchers activate countdown to save Earth from ocean threat

A new study published this month in the journal Nature warns of increase dangers what could this entail changes in ocean currents. The investigation confirms that A. Weakening ocean current circulation could increase the amount of CO2 accumulated in the atmosphere. and therefore, global temperaturesThis will accelerate the destruction of the planet.

The reason is related to Feedback between iron available in the ocean, carbon And nutrients emerging surface microorganisms and a little-known class of molecules commonly known as “ligands”.

When the ocean circulates more slowly, all of these actors interact with each other. self-perpetuating cycle and this ultimately increases the amount of carbon that the ocean returns to the atmosphere.

“By isolating the impact of this feedback, we see the relationship fundamentally different between ocean circulation And atmospheric carbon levels“with climate implications,” study author Jonathan Lauderdale, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, said in a statement. “What we thought was happening in the ocean has completely changed.”Add.

Lauderdale notes that the results show that “we can’t count on the ocean to store carbon in the deep ocean in response to future changes in circulation.” He therefore states that “we must be actively reduce emissions nowinstead of relying on these natural processes to buy time to mitigate the effects of climate change.”