ed a trip to measure carbon dioxide in the water off the Georgia coast in 2005.
“It was very similar to what someone else measured in 1995,” he said about his measurements. “I was shocked as there was very little increase. The reason is the water doesn’t stay there for a long enough time so it doesn’t really accumulate the anthropogenic signal.”
Instead, water in coastal zones is constantly on the move thanks to the conveyor belt of ocean currents. Those currents eventually dive to the depth of the ocean, and could be storing the carbon down there according to Cai’s theory.
Both studies point to the need for better monitoring in both those regions. They offer tantalizing results that suggest revisiting our understanding of the globe’s carbon budget, but more data is needed to reinforce their results.
That data would not only inform a better understanding of the planet’s carbon budget, but also paint a clearer picture of how regions that have great economic and environmental importance are changing.
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