The Meridional Overturning Mediated Carbon Cycle
This article is the first in a series, where I will challenge the common claim that Homo Sapiens has up-ended the global carbon cycle
The popular science that has been embraced by virtually every western government and even the Roman Catholic Church, is that human use of hydrocarbons is the sole basis for the growth in tropospheric CO2 concentration since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
Note that the reference point is the emergence of heavy industry and mechanized labor – cause you know, industry, profit and capitalism are inherently bad.
You will discover in this journey, that simple lies are easier to grasp than are complex truths and that “the trouble with our climate alarmist friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”
As would be expected, the global carbon cycle is anything but simple.
Thus, it should be no surprise that the antidote to group-think on this topic would take multiple doses to build a more complete mental picture of reality, to unlearn incorrect ideas and to achieve natural herd immunity to the mind virus of pseudo-science.
In this article you will learn that ocean chemistry, specifically pH levels, shows seawater is naturally basic, not acidic, debunking “ocean acidification” fears.
This article explores how CO2 moves between oceans and the atmosphere, revealing that colder regions like Japan’s Kuroshio Extension absorb CO2, while warmer areas like the Pacific Cold Tongue release it, influenced by deep ocean currents and temperature.
Readers will uncover the role of the thermohaline circulation, a deep ocean “conveyor” that takes over 2,300 years to move ‘carbon’ from the North Atlantic to the eastern Pacific, before releasing this ancient CO2 back to the troposphere.
The piece suggests natural processes, like mid-ocean ridge activity and Earth’s orbital changes, also shape CO2 levels; altogether ignored by mainstream science. Finally, they’ll be introduced to a new model linking ocean currents, tectonic activity, and climate, encouraging a rethinking of modern ‘climate change’ as a natural phenomenon.
To kick start this journey, I want to draw your eyes to the global ocean map above, which shows ocean pH variations, together with dashed ellipses enclosing the areas with the lowest pH values.
If you recall, pH is the negative base 10 logarithm of the proton concentration in moles per liter (pH = -log[H+]), which conventionally is expressed in scientific notion or base 10 values.
As pH is a base 10 scale from 0 to 14, a pH of 7 is by definition neutral, meaning the concentration of free protons (acid) is equal to the concentration of hydroxide anions or OH- (base), where the latter is also expressed using a similar logarithmic scale or pOH = -log[OH-].
Remember from high school that the equilibrium dissociation mass action relationship for H2O is commonly expressed algebraically as pH + pOH = 14.
Therefore, when pH = 7 this implies that pOH = 7 – neutrality exists.
Thus, if pH = 7.9 (areas in dashed red ellipses), is inherently basic, as pOH will by default be 6.1 in order to satisfy the rule of pH + pOH = 14 at standard temperature and pressure of 298 Kelvin (25 C) and 1 atmospheric pressure (101.325 kPa).
Using this fundamental relationship, it is clear that there is no such thing as acidic sea water. Further, the scale should read More Basic and Less Basic, as all seawater show pH values above pH = 7 and such, the concentration of hydroxide anions (basicity) are always higher than the concentration of protons (acidity).
Now that we got this chemistry out of the way, it is time to move on.
Next, we introduce the idea of gaseous CO2 flux between the ocean and troposphere, where this parameter has units of moles (i.e., number of molecules) per unit area per unit time.
Figure 1 shows a global CO2 flux map over the oceans; by convention a positive flux means CO2 is exiting the ocean surface and a negative flux means CO2 is being absorbed by the surface.
Figure 1. Global CO2 flux map – negative (positive) flux implies ocean surface is a CO2 sink (source).
When we compare the global ocean pH map and the global CO2 flux map (Figure 1), we notice two important facts.
- Regions which function as a CO2 sink (negative flux), are also the regions that are also the most basic – middle to higher latitudes.
- Regions which function as a CO2 source (positive flux), are generally also the regions that are the least basic – tropics / sub-tropics and especially the Cold Tongue region in the eastern Pacific.
What? How can seawater actively absorbing tropospheric CO2 be more basic than seawater actively off-gassing CO2?
The answer in part is the difference sea surface (SST) temperature between the tropics and higher latitudes – H2O becomes slightly more basic as SST drops below 298 K (25 C) or becomes slightly less basic when SST rises above 298 K (25 C).
As the average temperature in the eastern equatorial Pacific is 27 C (300 K), it is slightly more acidic (less basic) than Japan’s Kuroshio Extension (roughly 30°– 40°N, 140°–170°E), which is approximately 20–22°C (273 – 275 K) based on long-term climatological means (e.g., 1981–2010 baseline).
While this may explain the differences in sea surface pH (cover image), it does not explain why on average we see strong negative CO2 flux (absorption) along Japan’s Kuroshio Extension versus strong positive CO2 flux (off-gassing) along the eastern equatorial Pacific (Figure 1).
To partially make sense of these characteristics, we have to invoke the dual concepts of the temperature solubility of gases in H2O, together with the subtropical gyres and their associated ocean currents (Figure 2).
The gyres form in either hemisphere due to the opposing equatorial easterlies and the middle latitude westerlies, which together with the Coriolis force caused by the rotation of the Earth, sets in motion counter rotating ocean surface currents in either hemisphere as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Subtropical gyres and associated ocean currents in either hemisphere.
As CO2 is more soluble in colder H2O than in warmer, one could be tempted to argue that as colder currents, such as the California, Canary or Peru, are pushed into the warmer SST region of the equatorial zone, they release CO2 absorbed by colder surface waters as they transit from higher latitudes into the warmer equatorial latitudes.
However, this does explain why the Cold Tongue region of the eastern Pacific is a strong emitter of CO2, while Japan’s Kuroshio Extension is a strong absorber. The reason being is the Kuroshio Extension is a well know zone where higher salinity surface water, originating in the Western Pacific Warm Pool (WPWP), sinks to an intermediate depth of 300 – 700 meters as it begins to cool, off the east coast of Japan.
As this water cools, it absorbs tropospheric CO2.
Higher salinity water forms through enhanced evaporation in the WPWP, due to the fact that this is the warmest sea water on the planet (29 – 30 C). This elevated salinity in turn makes it more dense than the surrounding water and thus it sinks to an intermediate equilibrium depth as it cools.
This continuous sinking action (aka intermediate water formation), acts to pull CO2 out of the troposphere, and thereby creating a negative CO2 flux over this expansion region extending from the east coast of Japan and across the North Pacific.
This mechanism is the basis of all negative CO2 flux zones seen in Figure 1 and the most famous of all is the deep water formation in the sub-polar North Atlantic – more on this critical region to follow.
To introduce the Cold Tongue region of the eastern Pacific, I include Figure 3, which is an estimate of the global ocean’s net primary production (NPP) distribution. NPP is the amount of organic matter or energy produced by photosynthetic organisms (e.g., algae) that remains after subtracting the energy used for their own respiration.
It represents the biomass available to consumers (e.g., herbivores, carnivores) and for ecosystem growth.
NPP has units of mg carbon (C) per unit area per unit time.
Figure 3. Net Primary Productivity (NPP) maps of the global oceans
Let me spell out the significance of the elevated NPP along the Cold Tongue of the eastern Pacific and its little sisters off the east coast of Africa and along the northwest coast of the Indian Ocean – references made to prior illustrations.
- Regions with the highest NPP are those with the lowest ocean pH.
- Regions with the highest NPP are those that are positive CO2 flux sources.
This is not a narrative that you are ever likely to hear in popular science media outlets (e.g., National Geographic), but it is nonetheless true. The popular narrative is that lower pH oceans (i.e., ocean acidification) are an existential threat to marine ecosystems – yet this is contrary to what is measured globally.
For those who are less familiar with the idea of human caused ocean acidification, this argument suggests that humans are the sole reason for rising tropospheric CO2 concentrations and as they rise, the oceans absorb more CO2 and in turn cause decreasing pH or acidification.
The irony is the regions that are the strongest absorbers of tropospheric CO2 are also the regions with the highest pH – as discussed above.
Now that I have your attention, we are now primed to show why these alternative facts are powerful truths.
The reason maximum NPP, low pH and positive CO2 flux are found to coincide as they do in Figure 3, is because these regions are geographical hotspots for upwelling of deep water that is enriched in dissolved inorganic carbon (aka carbonic acid or H2CO3) and nutrients (e.g., nitrates, phosphates, iron).
Recall that carbonic acid decomposes to gaseous CO2 and H2O as shown below:
H2CO3 → H2O + CO2
Of course the reverse is true when CO2 is absorbed by liquid H2O.
Like cracking a beer releases CO2, so too does upwelling water enriched in carbonic acid give rise to positive CO2 flux, lower surface water pH and produce an explosion in NPP as deep water nutrients are made available to the surface ecosystem.
Figure 4. Global nitrate, carbon-14 and thermohaline circulation maps.
As the phrase implies, the right hand frame in Figure 4 shows that upwelling water is the flip side of the coin to downwelling water or deep (intermediate) water formation.
What goes down, must come up.
Follow the direction of the arrows in the right frame of Figure 4 to see the flow of water that is commonly known as thermohaline circulation (TC) or meridional overturning circulation (MOC) – driven by solar powered evaporation, terrestrial geography, wind shear and Coriolis forces.
The right hand frame in Figure 4 shows that the largest deep water formation site lies within the sub-polar North Atlantic region and the largest deep water upwelling zone lies along the eastern tropical Pacific.
The left hand frame of Figure 4 is quite revolutionary.
While it is known within in highly specialized graduate level oceanography courses, it is virtually ignored in the context of the mainstream view of the global carbon cycle.
Together, both left and right hand frames in Figure 4 shows the following:
- The Carbon-14 (14C) isotope isopleths (black contour lines) represents the age of deep water, showing it takes at least 2,300 years, after forming in the sub-polar North Atlantic region, for this deep water current (dark blue) to make its way to south to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). Once Atlantic deep water merges with the ACC, it is then lifted by the suction created by the Roaring Forties’ wind shear along Antarctic’s coast, where it is then directed into the North Pacific along intermediate depths before surfacing in the eastern Pacific’s Cold Tongue region.
- Let me repeat this succinctly – negative CO2 flux into sub-polar North Atlantic, which becomes carbonic acid (H2CO3), takes upwards of 2,300 years or more, before off-gassing from upwelling deep water in the eastern Pacific as positive CO2 flux. Thus, the CO2 emitted from the eastern Pacific is thousands of years old!
- Examine the color scale legend in the left hand frame in Figure 4 – shows that nitrate concentrations build as deep water transits the ocean bottom, from its formation in the sub-polar North Atlantic to the eastern Pacific. What is true for nitrate is also true for numerous other nutrients like phosphate and iron. The commonly accepted cause is the subsidence, mineralization and accumulation of gradually decaying biomass within deep water currents over thousands of year in route to the eastern Pacific upwelling zone. This is why deep water nutrient concentrations are the lowest in the North Atlantic and the highest in the North Pacific.
- Let me repeat this succinctly – this gradual nutrient enrichment in deep water over thousands of years is why NPP is the highest in the Cold Tongue region of the eastern Pacific and in other global upwelling zones. Likewise, as biomass decays or mineralizes fully, it turns in part to carbonic acid, which accumulates over thousands of years and in turn causes upwelling water to have lower pH than surrounding surface water. This build-up is analogous to the accumulation of carbonic acid in beer as yeast converts sugars into ethanol and CO2, some of which dissolves in the beer to form carbonic acid.
This is the extent of what I call mainstream oceanography model of the role played by the thermohaline in recycling deep ocean nutrients, including carbonic acid, back to the surface environment.
Up to this point, the primary carbon exchange emphasized is between the ocean – troposphere interface and the deep ocean.
Any carbon exchange between the solid Earth and the thermohaline’s deep water environment is all but ignored.
This is taken from a long document, read the rest here substack.com
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