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Science 16 July 2004:
Vol. 305. no. 5682, p. 305
DOI: 10.1126/science.305.5682.305b
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This Week in Science

Based on the amount of fossil fuel that has been burned in the industrial era, the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration is only half of the expected value. The fate of the rest of the CO2--in the ocean and the terrestrial biosphere--is the focus of two Research Articles (see the Perspective by Takahashi). Feely et al. (p. 362; see the cover) use a new data set of total alkalinity and chlorofluorocarbon measurements to estimate CaCO3 dissolution rates and to examine the long-term impacts on the carbon speciation in the global ocean. They also discuss the effects of these changes on calcium-carbonate-secreting organisms, including corals, foraminifera, pteropods, and coccolithophorids. Sabine et al. (p. 367) use marine inorganic carbon measurements from two global ocean surveys conducted in the 1990s to estimate the size of the oceanic sink for the period from 1800 to 1994. They find that the oceans have absorbed 48% of the CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning and cement manufacturing during that period. Because the atmospheric CO2 levels are equivalent to about two- thirds of the anthropogenic CO2 produced, the terrestrial biosphere must have been a net source during that interval.




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