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[30] [43] Currently about half of the carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels is not absorbed by vegetation and the oceans and remains in the atmosphere. [ 44 ] Burning fossil fuels such as coal , petroleum , and natural gas is the leading cause of increased anthropogenic CO 2 ; deforestation is the second major cause.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2) concentrations from 1958 to 2023. The Keeling Curve is a graph of the annual variation and overall accumulation of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere based on continuous measurements taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory on the island of Hawaii from 1958 to the present day.
Carbon dioxide dissolves in the ocean to form carbonic acid (H 2 CO 3), bicarbonate (HCO − 3), and carbonate (CO 2− 3). There is about fifty times as much carbon dioxide dissolved in the oceans as exists in the atmosphere. The oceans act as an enormous carbon sink, and have taken up about a third of CO 2 emitted by human activity. [90
Carbon dioxide and methane are examples of greenhouse gases. The additional greenhouse effect leads to ocean warming because the ocean takes up most of the additional heat in the climate system. [3] The ocean also absorbs some of the extra carbon dioxide that is in the atmosphere. This causes the pH value of the seawater to drop. [4]
By mole fraction (i.e., by quantity of molecules), dry air contains 78.08% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other trace gases (see Composition below for more detail). Air also contains a variable amount of water vapor, on average around 1% at sea level, and 0.4% over the entire atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere at the ocean's surface at an exchange rate which varies locally and with time [32] but on average, the oceans have a net absorption of around 2.9 Pg (equivalent to 2.9 billion metric tonnes) of carbon from atmospheric CO 2 per year. [33]
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased nearly 52% over pre-industrial levels by 2020, resulting in global warming. [3] The increased carbon dioxide has also caused a reduction in the ocean's pH value and is fundamentally altering marine chemistry. [4] Carbon dioxide is critical for photosynthesis.
Ocean circulation events cause this process to be variable. For example, during El Nino events there is less deep ocean upwelling, leading to lower outgassing of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. [18] Biological processes also lead to ocean-atmosphere carbon exchange. Carbon dioxide equilibrates between the atmosphere and the ocean's surface ...