Stirrings of Sea Creatures Affect Global Climate

[Anonymous]

http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/ ... imate.html

Stirrings of Sea Creatures Affect Global Climate

By Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 16 October 2006
02:01 pm ET

They are the very lowest rung of the marine food chain, but microscopic plants in the world's oceans generate five times more power than is consumed by all the humans in the world, according to a new study.

Scientists estimate that ocean phytoplankton generate about 63 terawatts [image] of chemical power every year. One terawatt equals a trillion watts. In 2001, humans collectively consumed about 13.5 terawatts.

The study also found that the movements of all of the ocean's marine life—from lowly phytoplankton to the largest whales—play a crucial role in bringing cold water from the ocean's depths to the surface. This ocean churning is what powers the global circulation of warm and cold water and is an important factor in the Earth's climate.

"We have predicted that the amount of mixing caused by ocean swimmers is comparable to the deep ocean mixing caused by the wind blowing on the ocean surface and the effects of the tides," said study leader William Dewar of Florida State University.

Humans might be inadvertently affecting this important ocean "biomixing" through their decimation of whales and big fish populations, the researchers say.

The findings will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Marine Research.

 

[pwj1286]

Sorta like a butterfly can cause a hurricane across the world.

Cause and effect...ok I am stealing that line from the Butterfly Effect and I guess that statment is plausible not really fact.
_________________
Honda CBX1000

 

[Kalkbreath]

Co2 levels are higher over the Pacific ocean then in the middle of the USA.
Its due to out gassing of the deep ocean.(Co2 rich water upwellings)
The past 100 year steady increase of Co2 in the earths atmosphere is directly connected to these deep sea up wellings, and not man made Co2 activities.
I good example of this was ;
The only period during the last 100 years in which co2 levels in the air decreased world wide.....was during WWII!
During a time which man made C02 increased dramaticly 1938-1946 (Fire, bombs War)
The Co2 in the air actually decreased.
How could this be?
Thats because while we humans were busy blasting each ......the Ocean life of the world were making woopy and .... fish stocks were rebounding
... due to very little commercial fishing pressures during the war.
Fish populations returned for a spell, back to a healthy ballance of equal Co2 in and Co2 out. The ballance was returned and the net excess of Co2 stopped.
As soon a the war ended , fishing resumed and the short term ballance was again lost.
Not enough biomass left in the ocean today to absorb the excess Co2
rising up from the depths.
The Plankton the Author of this artical refers to as producing "chemical power" does not replace the protein producing fish and mammals that are now missing in the chain. Protein building requires Co2 and a growing fish locks up and contains Co2 as it grows.
The Co2 formerly locked up in the Proteins of flesh and stored in the huge schools of fish that used to span the Seas.... is now instead, released into the air.

 

[Anonymous]

Um. Yeah. Okay. The fact that gas was rationed (US) to completely unavailable (Germany) in nearly every developed country that took part in the war just doesn't signify?

 

[Kalkbreath]

Gasoline has never been a major source of global C02. Even Today,
One good size California wild fire releases more CO2 then all the Automobiles in that state do in a twelve month period. Trees and bushes release a lot of carbon. Forrest Fires in Brazil and Africa release more CO2 then all the world autos.
The Burning of Cities during WWII was a major source of world wide CO2.
But on the other hand, there is no direct correlation between man made CO2 and the global level. The Worlds Oceans release more CO2 then then all other sources combined.
Human source or man made CO2 levels currently are sixty times that of 1870 ,
yet the yearly rise in CO2 last year (.4) is about the same today as in the late 1800s?
The yearly out put of human CO2 in 1960 was half that of 2006 , yet the yearly increase into the atmosphere was actually greater in 1960.
The Co2 is coming out of the ocean. NOT your tail pipes.
The El Nino La Nino warm water cycles in the Pacific Ocean directly preceed increases or decreases in atmosphere CO2 levels.
Warm water releases more CO2. And during those years of warm water in the Ocean ..... CO2 levels rise in the air.
The Current 150 year cycle of rising Co2 levels actualy began before the industrial revolution.
So , how could the cart come before the horse?
"Global warming" as they call it, began before Gasoline.
Yet whaling and big time fishing was in full swing before the advent of fossil fuels.
Many species of whales like the Great Alk were already wiped out before 1850.
The once plentiful biomass of the ocean was gone about the same time the global CO2 levels started to climb upward.

Al Gore needs to come over to my house for a few days.......