There may be a surprising top to lose coral reef as oceans hot

There may be an upside to the loss of coral reef. Their decline would mean that oceans can absorb up to 5 percent more carbon dioxide by 2100, estimates researchers, which slows down the construction of this greenhouse gas in the Earth’s atmosphere.

“It is an advantage if you are only interested in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere,” says Lester Kwiatkowski at Sorbonne University in Paris, France. But the decline in corals will also reduce biodiversity, damage fishing and leave many coasts more exposed to rising seas, he says.

How much the world will heat depends on the head of the level of CO2 in the atmosphere. So far, the country and the oceans have soaked about half of the extra CO2 we have released. Any factors that increase or decrees these so-called land or seaweed sinks could be a significant impact on future heating.

It is often assumed that corals remove CO2 from seawater Asy grows their calcium carbonate skeletons. In fact, the process, also known as calcification, is a mains source for CO2.

“You call inorganic carbon in the sea, generally in the form of carbonate and bicarbonations, making it calcium carbonate, and that process releases CO2 in the seawater, some of which will be lost to the atmosphere,” says Kwiatkowski.

This means that if reef formation surrounds the world brakes or even turns, less CO2 will be released by reefs and the world seas will be able to absorb more of this greenhouse gas from the atmosphere – a factor that does not currently include in climate models.

Observations suggest that calcification of coral reefs has already decreased as rising seawater temperatures cause lots of coral bleaching and boundaries. The higher level of CO2 also makes oceans more acidic, which can make it harder to build carbonate skeletons and even lead to their solution.

Kwiatkowski and his team took published estimates of how corals will be agreed upon by heating and acidifying the sea and used a computer model to find out how this can change the sea sink in various emission scenarios. They conclude that the world seas could take do two and 5 percent more carbon with 2100 and up to 13 percent more with 2300.

This does not take into account other factors that may cause cracking, such as overfishing and spreading coral disorders, Kwiatkowski says, so it can even be an underestimation.

On the other hand, the work assumes that corals are unable to adapt or be acclimatized, says Chris Jury at the University of Hawai’i in Manoa, involved in the study.

“If the worst case or even medium-case scenario in this study happens, it means the almost total destruction of coral reefs globally,” says jury. “I believe that in terms of realistic levels of adaptation and acclimatization of corals and other revications, the authors may come to different conclusions below a low to moderate climate change level.

If Kwiatkowski’s team is correct, it means that the love of the emot CO2, which will lead to a given level of heating-the so-called carbon budget-is a little teachers than at the moment.

“I think we would like the budgets to recognize as possible, even if we blew through them,” says Kwiatkowski.