Irina Marinov | Postdoctoral Research

Global atmospheric carbon level may depend primarily on Southern Ocean

News@Princeton (Friday, June 23, 2006)

...Changing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide have long concerned the scientific community, as this well-known greenhouse gas could be a major influence on global warming. Marinov said "the discovery could shed light on how the Earth reacted far back in history, which might offer clues to how it will behave in the future."

An in-depth look at how the oceans take up carbon dioxide.

Nature (Thursday, 22 June 2006) | doi:10.1038/7096xia; published online 21 June 2006

...On page 964 of this issue, Irina Marinov, now based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her colleagues at Princeton University in New Jersey, provide fresh insight into the oceans' ability to soak up CO2. Marinov and her team focused on the Southern Ocean, the expanse of water that surrounds Antarctica and absorbs the lion's share of CO2. Their work involved modeling CO2 uptake in the ocean — but the model was inspired by the combination of two factors.

The Southern Ocean biogeochemical divide

Nature (441, 964-967 - (22 June 2006) | doi:10.1038/nature04883; Received 4 May 2005; accepted 16 May 2006

. . . Modeling studies have demonstrated that the nutrient and carbon cycles in the Southern Ocean play a central role in setting the air–sea balance of CO2 and global biological production.