Andrew--Greg is right--and warming of ocean near surface would also force
CO2 out, so maybe do at high latitudes where it is cold and encourage marine
life.

Mike


On 1/14/09 7:25 PM, "Andrew Lockley" <[email protected]> wrote:

> 
> Any outgassing of the deep ocean water when it rose to the surface
> would only release gases added during the aeration process.  Unless
> the existing ocean water was supersaturated, then there shouldn't be
> any additional outgassing.  I don't have the expertise to advise
> whether there are supersaturated CO2 layers in the ocean.
> 
> A
> 
> 2009/1/14 Greg Rau <[email protected]>:
>> Perhaps I've missed something, but if you are advocating increased
>> ventilation of the subsurface ocean, this water is not only nutrient rich,
>> but is is also supersaturated in CO2 (relative to air).  Natural ocean
>> upwelling is a huge CO2 source for the atmosphere.  So unless you can show
>> that stimulation of biological CO2 fixation (via the nutrient upwelling)
>> more than offsets the upwelled CO2 degassing to the atmosphere, what's the
>> point?
>> -Greg Rau
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> A simple way to achieve this would be to force air down into deep
>>> pipes and allow it to bubble to the surface.  The same principle is
>>> used in fishtanks to create upwelling water and increase the surface
>>> area for gaseous exchange.  There's a tradeoff between little bubbles
>>> (for gaseous exchange) and big bubbles (to force mixing).
>>> 
>>> Flow tubes would probably be necessary to create a defined upwelling
>>> column of water.  These tubes would provide a reasonably good mount
>>> for a wind turbine or sea turbine, provided they could be anchored to
>>> the sea bed.  The most obvious engineering problem I can think of is
>>> stability and resonances.
>>> 
>>> What do other people think?
>>> 
>>> A
>>> 
>>> 2009/1/13 John Nissen <[email protected]>:
>>>> 
>>>>  Hi all,
>>>> 
>>>>  Could there be a case for geoengineering to increase sea "ventilation"
>>>> and
>>>>  thereby increase CO2 absorption by the sea?  (I'm thinking of those
>>>> millions
>>>>  of wave-powered tubes suggested by Chris Rapley and James Lovelock to
>>>> bring
>>>>  deep cool water to the surface.)
>>>> 
>>>>  http:// www.
>>>> guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/12/sea-co2-climate-japan-environment
>>>> 
>>>>  ---
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>  Sea absorbing less CO2, scientists discover
>>>> 
>>>>  David Adam, environment correspondent
>>>>  The Guardian, Monday 12 January 2009
>>>>  Article history
>>>> 
>>>>  Scientists have issued a new warning about climate change after
>>>> discovering
>>>>  a sudden and dramatic collapse in the amount of carbon emissions
>>>> absorbed by
>>>>  the Sea of Japan.
>>>> 
>>>>  The shift has alarmed experts, who blame global warming.
>>>> 
>>>>  The world's oceans soak up about 11bn tonnes of human carbon dioxide
>>>>  pollution each year, about a quarter of all produced, and even a slight
>>>>  weakening of this natural process would leave significantly more CO2 in
>>>> the
>>>>  atmosphere. That would require countries to adopt much stricter
>>>> emissions
>>>>  targets to prevent dangerous rises in temperature.
>>>> 
>>>>  Kitack Lee, an associate professor at Pohang University of Science and
>>>>  Technology, who led the research, says the discovery is the "very first
>>>>  observation that directly relates ocean CO2 uptake change to ocean
>>>> warming".
>>>> 
>>>>  He says the warmer conditions disrupt a process known as "ventilation" -
>>>> the
>>>>  way seawater flows and mixes and drags absorbed CO2 from surface waters
>>>> to
>>>>  the depths. He warns that the effect is probably not confined to the Sea
>>>> of
>>>>  Japan. It could also affect CO2 uptake in the Atlantic and Southern
>>>> oceans.
>>>> 
>>>>  "Our result in the East Sea unequivocally demonstrated that oceanic
>>>> uptake
>>>>  of CO2 has been directly affected by warming-induced weakening of
>>>> vertical
>>>>  ventilation," he says. Korea argues that the Sea of Japan should be
>>>> renamed
>>>>  the East Sea, because it says the former is a legacy of Japan's military
>>>>  expansion in the region.
>>>> 
>>>>  Lee adds: "In other words, the increase in atmospheric temperature due
>>>> to
>>>>  global warming can profoundly influence the ocean ventilation, thereby
>>>>  decreasing the uptake rate of CO2."
>>>> 
>>>>  Working with Pavel Tishchenko of the Russian Pacific Oceanological
>>>> Institute
>>>>  in Vladivostok, Lee and his colleague Geun-Ha Park used a cruise on the
>>>>  Professor Gagarinskiy, a Russian research vessel, last May to take
>>>> seawater
>>>>  samples from 24 sites across the Sea of Japan.
>>>> 
>>>>  They compared the dissolved CO2 in the seawater with similar samples
>>>>  collected in 1992 and 1999. The results showed the amount of CO2
>>>> absorbed
>>>>  during 1999 to 2007 was half the level recorded from 1992 to 1999.
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>  Crucially, the study revealed that ocean mixing, a process required to
>>>>  deposit carbon in deep water, where it is more likely to stay, appears
>>>> to
>>>>  have significantly weakened.
>>>> 
>>>>  Announcing their results in the journal Geophysical Research Letters,
>>>> the
>>>>  scientists say: "The striking feature is that nearly all anthropogenic
>>>> CO2
>>>>  taken up in the recent period was confined to waters less than 300
>>>> metres in
>>>>  depth. The rapid and substantial reduction ... is surprising and is
>>>>  attributed to considerable weakening of overturning circulation."
>>>> 
>>>>  Corinne Le Quéré, an expert in ocean carbon storage at the University of
>>>>  East Anglia, said: "We don't think the ocean is just going to completely
>>>>  stop taking our carbon dioxide emissions, but if the effect weakens then
>>>> it
>>>>  has real consequences for the atmosphere."
>>>> 
>>>>  ---
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>  Cheers,
>>>> 
>>>>  John
>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>>>> 
>> 
> 
> > 



--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"geoengineering" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to 
[email protected]
For more options, visit this group at 
http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

Reply via email to