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Studies show CO2 has reached the bottom of the ocean.
Human-generated carbon dioxide has sunk down to a great depth in the North Atlantic Ocean, a new study has shown. The work, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1, suggests that the oceans store CO2 for longer than expected — good news for reducing the risk of climate change, but bad news for marine life in the deep sea.
About half of the atmospheric CO2 produced by human activities since the beginning of the industrial revolution has ended up in the ocean2. The gas, along with oxygen and other compounds in the air, dissolves into the surface waters and is mixed around by the currents. Because the ocean is so huge, it has an enormous capacity to suck up gas.
Scientists have long known that CO2 would eventually be transported to the deep sea. But previous studies have been unable to spot man-made carbon dioxide at depths of greater than 4,000 metres. How much was down deep was a great unknown.
