Daily AM CO2 Buildup In Coastal Cities Speeds Acidification Of Nearby Oceans As Winds Move It To Sea
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According to Francisco Chavez, a biological oceanographer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, the finding runs counter to the prevailing understanding of how greenhouse gases mix into the air. Scientists have typically assumed that carbon dioxide emitted by everything from cars to respiring plants rapidly combines with other molecules to form a homogenous aerial cocktail, he says.
After five years of analyzing carbon dioxide concentrations in the air and water of Monterey Bay, however, Chavez and his team found that when atmospheric carbon dioxide peaks in the early morning, it creates a dome of carbon-dioxide-laden air. When the seaward wind picks up, it carries this unmixed carbon-dioxide-rich mass offshore, where it gets absorbed by the bay. Every day, when the wind is right, the water within about 100 kilometers of shore receives a heavy dose of carbon dioxide.
There’s another reason this effect has been overlooked until now, Chavez says. Typically, scientists measuring carbon dioxide concentrations in and over the ocean do so from fossil-fuel-burning ships. If a result is abnormally high, “you’d say, ‘Oh, that’s because the wind was blowing from the smokestacks over my sensor, so it must have contaminated it,’” he says.
The Monterey Bay team, however, used sensors anchored to the seafloor or affixed to a wave- and solar-powered glider to get around this source of potential interference. That’s how they discovered that 20 percent more carbon dioxide is entering Monterey Bay than scientists had previously estimated, meaning that nearshore acidification is more intense than they thought. Chavez says other coastal areas with strong offshore winds and large carbon-emitting sources are likely having a similarly disproportionate effect on nearby water.
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https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/cities-acidify-the-water-next-door/