Theme 3. Feedbacks to the Earth System

What are the role of ocean biogeochemistry and ecosystems in regulating climate?

The impact of human activities on the Earth System is manifested in many ways including increasing global mean temperature, changing precipitation and changing ocean chemistry. The rate of these changes, and more importantly, their local and regional manifestations, depend crucially and inextricably on how the components of the Earth System respond individually and together. Understanding and predicting interactions and feedbacks between components of the Earth System can only be achieved with extensive, well planned observational programmes supported by modelling and data assimilation activities that span across projects and programmes. This theme will focus on the present and future capacity of the ocean to control the climate system via atmospheric composition and ocean heat storage.

Column inventory of anthropogenic CO₂ in the ocean (mol m^-2). Total inventory of shaded regions is 106 ± 17 PgC. From Sabine et al. (2004).