Southern Ocean Is Back To Business, Countering Global Warming

Capacity of the Southern Ocean, a large body of water surrounding Antarctica, to absorb Carbon Dioxide has been revived a new study reveals.

The oceans are the biggest sink of atmospheric carbon dioxide and help in countering global warming to some extent. The Southern Ocean is a major sink source as it is said to constitute nearly 40 percent of oceanic uptake of CO­₂. A decade ago, researchers found the sink capacity of the Southern Ocean had saturated and remained unchanged since the 1980s, triggering concerns about rapid rise in atmospheric carbon levels.

The new study by scientists from ETH Zurich shows that the ocean has regained its sinking capacity since early years of this millennium due to changes in wind and temperature conditions in the region. Researchers made these conclusions by studying ocean and atmospheric concentrations of CO_{2, according to a press release.}

The research team calls for celebration with caution by maintaining that the ocean's capacity to sink carbon dioxide is fluctuating and cannot be forecast.

"Our statistical model is not able to predict the future development so it is very critical to continue measuring the surface ocean CO2 concentrations in the Southern Ocean," says study author Peter Landschützer.

"This is particularly important since current models are not able to reproduce the observed variations", said study lead Nicolas Gruber.

The study has been published in the journal Science.