The Ocean Has Released an Insane Amount of CO2, And No One Even Noticed
"It's a carbon bomb."
DAVID NIELD 24 MAR 2018
Our planet's climate is built on a whole host of interlinked chemical reactions and counter-reactions, and we just learned about another: an underwater heatwave has triggered a worryingly huge release of CO2 from Amphibolis antarctica seagrass off north-western Australia.
Vast tracts of these flowering marine plants were killed by the stress of living in waters that were 2-4 degrees Celsius (3.6-7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than normal back in the summer of 2010-2011, researchers have found.
More than a third of the seagrass meadows were potentially affected. And no one really noticed.
And the findings have very real implications for the kind of self-perpetuating heat rises we could be in for, say the international team of researchers, as too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere warms the planet and leads to the release of even more greenhouse gases.
More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/marine-heatwave-releases-insane-amount-of-seagrass-co2