The ocean’s storage system: how plankton influences climate change
Climate: Past, Present & Future (CL)
Ocean Sciences (OS)
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The ocean has an incredible capacity to store carbon. It has been absorbing one third of humanity’s emissions over the last century or two, and ultimately will absorb much of our future emissions. Phytoplankton communities play a key role in the ocean carbon cycle, as carbon is removed from the atmosphere and transferred to the deep ocean for long-term storage. Professor Katsumi Matsumoto, of the University of Minnesota in the US, uses computer models to understand this process, and what it means for global climate change.
This brochure introduces Katsumi’s work, offers an insight into careers in biogeochemistry, contains an interview with Katsumi and includes an activity sheet that challenges students to model the global ocean carbon cycle.