NOAA - Tropical Pacific Ocean Acidifying More Quickly Than Expected
The amount of carbon dioxide in the tropical Pacific Ocean has increased surprisingly quickly over the past 14 years, according to new research from scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Washington.
The reason for the rapid increase in carbon dioxide concentrations is a combination of natural variability and human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, said Adrienne Sutton, a research scientist with NOAA's Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean at the University of Washington.
Although it is difficult to tease out exactly how much of the increase in carbon dioxide concentrations is due to human-caused climate change, "we assume that most of the carbon dioxide increase [in the tropical Pacific] is due to anthropogenic CO2," Sutton said.
In fact, the rate of increase in carbon dioxide concentrations in parts of the tropical Pacific Ocean, a band of ocean along the equator between the coasts of South America and Southeast Asia, is greater than the rate of increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Measurements by atmospheric scientists at NOAA show that atmospheric CO2 is increasing at a rate of about 2 parts per million per year. But in parts of the tropical Pacific, the rate of change in CO2 concentrations measured by the researchers reached 3.3 ppm per year.
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