Shame that the conclusion that mankinds activities cause global warming is
being ignored. ..
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/12/18/MNGNV3PH9D1.DTL

"Leaders of one of the nation's top scientific organizations issued a new
warning this week that human activities -- most notably the greenhouse gas
emissions from power plants and other industries -- are warming Earth's
climate at a faster rate than ever.

The statement came from the 28-member council of the American Geophysical
Union, whose 41,000 members include more than 10,000 experts on the planet's
atmosphere and changing climate. "

HTH

Garry


"Sir Arthur C.B.E. Wholeflaffers �.S.�." <nospam@newsranger.com> wrote in
message news:cx8Jb.15294$85.357@www.newsranger.com...

In article <bt133m$24v5$1@pencil.math.missouri.edu>, Mark Graffis says...

Ocean life depends on single circulation pattern in Southern Hemisphere
Public release date: 31-Dec-2003

Contact: Patty Allen
pallen@princeton.edu
609-258-6108
Princeton University

Ocean life depends on single circulation pattern in Southern Hemisphere
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-12/pu-old122903.php

Study raises questions about potential impact of climate change

A study has shown that marine life around the world is surprisingly
dependent on a single ocean circulation pattern in the Southern

Hemisphere

where nutrient-rich water rises from the deep and spreads across the

seas.

The results suggest that ocean life may be more sensitive to climate

change

than previously believed because most global warming predictions indicate
that major ocean circulation patterns will change. While oceanographers

have

identified many ocean circulation patterns, the study found that
three-quarters of all biological activity in the oceans relies on this
single pattern.
"When we shut off this one pathway in our models, biological productivity

in

the oceans drops to one-quarter of what it is today," said Jorge

Sarmiento,

a Princeton oceanographer who led the study published in the Jan. 1,

2004,

issue of Nature. Marine organisms account for half all biological
productivity on Earth.
The discovery helps oceanographers settle a longstanding question about

what

keeps the world's oceans fertile. Most biological activity in the ocean

is

concentrated near the surface where an abundance of microorganisms

perform

photosynthesis and support marine food chains. These organisms and their
byproducts slowly sink from the surface, decomposing along the way and
carrying nutrients to the deep ocean. Until now, it has not been clear

how

the surface becomes replenished with the nutrients that seemed lost to

the

deep ocean.
Previous research has shown that ocean water does not mix well across

layers

of equal density, which are mostly oriented horizontally in the ocean.

Once

the organic matter sinks to the abyss, it takes a long time for nutrients

to

cross the layers and return to the surface. Without a mechanism to bring
deep water back to the surface, the oceans would lose about one-fiftieth

of

their nutrients to this sinking process each year, Sarmiento said.
Sarmiento and colleagues identified what amounts to an enormous conveyor
belt that carries nutrient-rich seawater southward in the deep ocean,

brings

it to the surface in the Antarctic Ocean where the density layer barrier

is

weak and ships it north. The water sinks again in the Northern Hemisphere
and starts over. The researchers discovered a chemical signature (the
presence of high nitrate and low silicate levels) that is unique to this
nutrient carrier, which is called the Subantarctic Mode Water, and used

it

to trace the influence of this water in surface waters around the world.
"It is really quite amazing," said Sarmiento. "I had no idea of the

extent

of its influence."
The SAMW is responsible for feeding nearly all the world's oceans, except
for the North Pacific, which is resupplied with nutrients through another
circulation pattern, the researchers found.
The finding already has attracted interest among oceanographers. "They

have

clearly identified the pathway that counteracts the so-called biological
pump, which acts to strip the surface layer of its nutrients," said

Arnold

Gordon of Columbia University. "One now wonders how global change will

alter

the efficiency of this pathway."
Sarmiento said the research group "is now hard at work investigating the
details of this nutrient circulation pattern with an eye to examining how

it

might respond to global warming in model simulations."
###
Sarmiento conducted the study in collaboration with Nicholas Gruber of

the

University of California-Los Angeles, Mark Brzezinski of the University

of

California-Santa Barbara and John Dunne of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics
Laboratory in Princeton. The research was supported by the National

Science

Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the
Department of Energy.