Testing the climate intervention potential of ocean afforestation using the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt
Abstract Ensuring that global warming remains <2 °C requires rapid CO 2 emissions reduction. Additionally, 100–900 gigatons CO 2 must be removed from the atmosphere by 2100 using a portfolio of CO 2 removal (CDR) methods. Ocean afforestation, CDR through basin-scale seaweed farming in the ope...
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2021
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crspringernat:10.1038/s41467-021-22837-2 2023-05-15T17:33:35+02:00 Testing the climate intervention potential of ocean afforestation using the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt Bach, Lennart T. Tamsitt, Veronica Gower, Jim Hurd, Catriona L. Raven, John A. Boyd, Philip W. 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22837-2 http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22837-2.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22837-2 en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Nature Communications volume 12, issue 1 ISSN 2041-1723 General Physics and Astronomy General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Chemistry journal-article 2021 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22837-2 2022-01-04T16:12:12Z Abstract Ensuring that global warming remains <2 °C requires rapid CO 2 emissions reduction. Additionally, 100–900 gigatons CO 2 must be removed from the atmosphere by 2100 using a portfolio of CO 2 removal (CDR) methods. Ocean afforestation, CDR through basin-scale seaweed farming in the open ocean, is seen as a key component of the marine portfolio. Here, we analyse the CDR potential of recent re-occurring trans-basin belts of the floating seaweed Sargassum in the (sub)tropical North Atlantic as a natural analogue for ocean afforestation. We show that two biogeochemical feedbacks, nutrient reallocation and calcification by encrusting marine life, reduce the CDR efficacy of Sargassum by 20–100%. Atmospheric CO 2 influx into the surface seawater, after CO 2 -fixation by Sargassum , takes 2.5–18 times longer than the CO 2 -deficient seawater remains in contact with the atmosphere, potentially hindering CDR verification. Furthermore, we estimate that increased ocean albedo, due to floating Sargassum , could influence climate radiative forcing more than Sargassum -CDR. Our analysis shows that multifaceted Earth-system feedbacks determine the efficacy of ocean afforestation. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Springer Nature (via Crossref) Nature Communications 12 1 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
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crspringernat |
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English |
topic |
General Physics and Astronomy General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Chemistry |
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General Physics and Astronomy General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Chemistry Bach, Lennart T. Tamsitt, Veronica Gower, Jim Hurd, Catriona L. Raven, John A. Boyd, Philip W. Testing the climate intervention potential of ocean afforestation using the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt |
topic_facet |
General Physics and Astronomy General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology General Chemistry |
description |
Abstract Ensuring that global warming remains <2 °C requires rapid CO 2 emissions reduction. Additionally, 100–900 gigatons CO 2 must be removed from the atmosphere by 2100 using a portfolio of CO 2 removal (CDR) methods. Ocean afforestation, CDR through basin-scale seaweed farming in the open ocean, is seen as a key component of the marine portfolio. Here, we analyse the CDR potential of recent re-occurring trans-basin belts of the floating seaweed Sargassum in the (sub)tropical North Atlantic as a natural analogue for ocean afforestation. We show that two biogeochemical feedbacks, nutrient reallocation and calcification by encrusting marine life, reduce the CDR efficacy of Sargassum by 20–100%. Atmospheric CO 2 influx into the surface seawater, after CO 2 -fixation by Sargassum , takes 2.5–18 times longer than the CO 2 -deficient seawater remains in contact with the atmosphere, potentially hindering CDR verification. Furthermore, we estimate that increased ocean albedo, due to floating Sargassum , could influence climate radiative forcing more than Sargassum -CDR. Our analysis shows that multifaceted Earth-system feedbacks determine the efficacy of ocean afforestation. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bach, Lennart T. Tamsitt, Veronica Gower, Jim Hurd, Catriona L. Raven, John A. Boyd, Philip W. |
author_facet |
Bach, Lennart T. Tamsitt, Veronica Gower, Jim Hurd, Catriona L. Raven, John A. Boyd, Philip W. |
author_sort |
Bach, Lennart T. |
title |
Testing the climate intervention potential of ocean afforestation using the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt |
title_short |
Testing the climate intervention potential of ocean afforestation using the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt |
title_full |
Testing the climate intervention potential of ocean afforestation using the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt |
title_fullStr |
Testing the climate intervention potential of ocean afforestation using the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt |
title_full_unstemmed |
Testing the climate intervention potential of ocean afforestation using the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt |
title_sort |
testing the climate intervention potential of ocean afforestation using the great atlantic sargassum belt |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22837-2 http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22837-2.pdf http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22837-2 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Nature Communications volume 12, issue 1 ISSN 2041-1723 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22837-2 |
container_title |
Nature Communications |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766132133850513408 |