CARBON TWILIGHT ZONE

Perhaps the most important thing science teaches: Assimilate information. If there is anything still to know about climate change and the oceans, let's find out! Meanwhile, keep putting in those wind farms and solar installations!

‘Twilight Zone’ a mystery for ocean carbon; Scientists report deep ocean area will have big impact on climate models
April 26, 2007 (MSNBC)

WHO
Ken Buesseler, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, co-author
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WHAT
Research, reported in the journal Science, described a “mesopelagic” or “twilight zone” level, below the ocean’s surface and above the deep, where carbon dioxide from the atmosphere may be consumed and recycled by marine life rather than sinking harmlessly to the bottom.

WHEN
The paper was published in the April 27 issue. Its significance pertains to developing understanding about climate change.

WHERE
The study looked at areas off Hawaii and off Japan.

WHY
- Marine plants and microorganisms at/near the ocean’s consume carbon dioxide in photosynthesis. When they die, they take carbon by-products to their watery graves in the deep ocean, so-called “marine snow.” Because the carbon does not return to the atmosphere and add to the “greenhouse effect,” this “carbon-sink” is a protection from global warming.
- The Woods Hole study reports that the “twilight zone” 300 to 3000 feet below the ocean surface, too deep for photosynthesis but not the deep ocean, may catch and dissolve some of the marine snow so that it returns to the surface. Off Hawaii, 80% of the carbon was recycled; off Japan, 50%.

QUOTES
- Buesseler: “The twilight zone is a critical link between the surface and the deep ocean…We’re interested in what happens in the twilight zone, what sinks into it and what actually sinks out of it.”
- Buesseler: “Unless the carbon that gets into the ocean goes all the way down into the deep ocean and is stored there, the carbon can still make its way back into the atmosphere…Without this long-term storage, there is little influence on atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that impacts earth’s climate.”