UKOARP Theme G: CO2 - carbon cycle - climate interactions [pelagic CaCO3 production, export, ballasting and future changes]
There are large uncertainties surrounding how the carbon cycle works and the importance of carbonate shells in the sinking of organic matter, and hence, uncertainties in the impacts of acidification on the global ocean.
The theme's first aim being to achieve a much better understanding of the modern ocean carbon cycle - a prerequisite to making reliable future predictions. This will be achieved using vast datasets describing what the ocean 'looks' like today and running computer models of ocean carbon cycling and climate thousands of times. Together, this will allow model improvements and also provide estimates in some of the uncertainty in the predictions made by the model.
The second aim of the theme will build directly on this to make predictions of the range of potential changes that might be observed in ocean carbon and nutrient cycles in the future, and whether these changes will affect the degree of future warming by emitting greenhouse gases back to the atmosphere.
Weblink: http://www.ocean-acidification.org.uk/research_programme/impacts_and_climate_change.aspx