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Earth science

How the ocean exhales

Nature volume 495, pages 454–455 (2013)Cite this article

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A record of biogenic opal production in the subtropical Atlantic Ocean fuels the theory that ocean circulation, rather than winds, drove the release of carbon dioxide from deep marine waters at the end of the last ice age. See Letter p.495

Although the ocean surface is largely in equilibrium with the atmosphere, the deep ocean holds 50 times more CO2 than the atmosphere. This is because of a process called the biological pump: first, phytoplankton fix CO2 in the ocean surface by photosynthesis to form organic carbon; then, when they die, the phytoplankton sink into the deep ocean, where the organic carbon is consumed by other organisms and respired back to CO2, which forms dissolved carbonate.

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Figure 1: A source of silica.

JOHN CLEGG/SPL

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  1. Elisabeth Sikes is at the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901-8521, USA.,

    Elisabeth Sikes

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  1. Elisabeth Sikes
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Correspondence to Elisabeth Sikes.

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Sikes, E. How the ocean exhales. Nature 495, 454–455 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/495454a

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