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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Rivers buffer a vast sea against climate-change impacts

As global temperatures rise, parts of the Gulf of Mexico are undergoing less acidification than expected — for now.
A cloud of particles from the mouth of the Mississippi River emptying into the Gulf of Mexico

A plume of particles marks where the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The river’s alkaline water has slowed the gulf’s acidification. Credit: NASA/Alamy

Many parts of the ocean are becoming more acidic as a result of climate change. But in the northern Gulf of Mexico, that effect is nearly cancelled out as increasingly alkaline water pours in from rivers1.

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Nature 601, 169 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03843-2

References

  1. Gomez, F. A., Wanninkhof, R., Barbero, L. & Lee, S-K. Geophys. Res. Lett. 48, e2021 (2021).

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