Fjords and their secret identity as super carbon sinks
May 5, 2015 4:13 PM Subscribe
The Surprising Link Between Fjords and Carbon While fjords make up just one tenth of one percent of the oceans’ surface area they account for about 11 percent of the carbon locked away in marine sediments each year ...
More sciency links:
Fjords act as ‘carbon sinks’ that store carbon
Fjords are 'hotspots' in global carbon cycling
And The Daily Mail, as always it is oversensationalized but has a lot of "extras" in terms of maps and visuals and background info:
Could FJORDS help solve global warming? Deep sea inlets trap huge quantities of carbon
More sciency links:
Fjords act as ‘carbon sinks’ that store carbon
Fjords are 'hotspots' in global carbon cycling
And The Daily Mail, as always it is oversensationalized but has a lot of "extras" in terms of maps and visuals and background info:
Could FJORDS help solve global warming? Deep sea inlets trap huge quantities of carbon
One more reason to pine for them.
posted by escabeche at 4:19 PM on May 5, 2015 [13 favorites]
posted by escabeche at 4:19 PM on May 5, 2015 [13 favorites]
Damn it, Nerd of the North. In before I could say that they also give a lovely, baroque feel to a continent.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:23 PM on May 5, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:23 PM on May 5, 2015 [4 favorites]
Am I the only person who is being slowly driven mad by people saying "carbon" for carbon dioxide?
posted by thelonius at 4:25 PM on May 5, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 4:25 PM on May 5, 2015 [6 favorites]
In this instance, I think they mean the more broadly organic matter and compounds; not co2 explicitly, thus making carbon (sorta) right over co2.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 4:28 PM on May 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by [insert clever name here] at 4:28 PM on May 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
Thelonius, the articles refer to it that way.
/plausible deniability of my own guilt
Slartibarfast
I had to look up the reference. I have read these books, back when I had a pet dinosaur and rotary phone. I feel so old and out of touch.
posted by Michele in California at 4:28 PM on May 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
/plausible deniability of my own guilt
Slartibarfast
I had to look up the reference. I have read these books, back when I had a pet dinosaur and rotary phone. I feel so old and out of touch.
posted by Michele in California at 4:28 PM on May 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
Lovely crinkly bits.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:28 PM on May 5, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 4:28 PM on May 5, 2015 [3 favorites]
Am I the only person who is being slowly driven mad by people saying "carbon" for carbon dioxide?
We're not digging a lot of extra oxygen up out of the earth. It's where the carbon ends up -as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, or some other compound somewhere else - that matters. Carbon dioxide also gets absorbed by the ocean, too, but that's also bad due to ocean acidification. Basically, the best thing is for carbon to end up as not carbon dioxide somewhere.
posted by Zalzidrax at 4:30 PM on May 5, 2015 [3 favorites]
We're not digging a lot of extra oxygen up out of the earth. It's where the carbon ends up -as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, or some other compound somewhere else - that matters. Carbon dioxide also gets absorbed by the ocean, too, but that's also bad due to ocean acidification. Basically, the best thing is for carbon to end up as not carbon dioxide somewhere.
posted by Zalzidrax at 4:30 PM on May 5, 2015 [3 favorites]
More clean Nordic design at work!
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:30 PM on May 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:30 PM on May 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
How difficult would it be to generate some artificial fjords along other areas where the mountains go down the sea level?
Seems like the key component is that fjords are often deeper than the surrounding ocean and are also low oxygen environments so the sequester a lot of oxygen for a given surface area.
posted by vuron at 4:36 PM on May 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
Seems like the key component is that fjords are often deeper than the surrounding ocean and are also low oxygen environments so the sequester a lot of oxygen for a given surface area.
posted by vuron at 4:36 PM on May 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
Am I the only person who is being slowly driven mad by people saying "carbon" for carbon dioxide?
Yes and you should get over it. A carbon sink does not (generally speaking) store carbon dioxide in the ground, but rather coverts carbon dioxide to other organic compounds (literally, compounds containing carbon; typically oxygen as well) which are much more stable in liquid or solid form. E.g. the Calvin cycle. So yeah, ultimately it's the carbon atoms that matter. Also terms such as "carbon sequestration" without specific reference to CO2 apply as well to compounds like methane that are even worse in terms of greenhouse effects.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 4:43 PM on May 5, 2015 [6 favorites]
Yes and you should get over it. A carbon sink does not (generally speaking) store carbon dioxide in the ground, but rather coverts carbon dioxide to other organic compounds (literally, compounds containing carbon; typically oxygen as well) which are much more stable in liquid or solid form. E.g. the Calvin cycle. So yeah, ultimately it's the carbon atoms that matter. Also terms such as "carbon sequestration" without specific reference to CO2 apply as well to compounds like methane that are even worse in terms of greenhouse effects.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 4:43 PM on May 5, 2015 [6 favorites]
I had to look up the reference. I have read these books, back when I had a pet dinosaur and rotary phone. I feel so old and out of touch.
I don't care. I still think digital watches are a neat idea.
posted by ocschwar at 4:45 PM on May 5, 2015 [5 favorites]
I don't care. I still think digital watches are a neat idea.
posted by ocschwar at 4:45 PM on May 5, 2015 [5 favorites]
Fjords are carbon sinks...are you pondering what I'm pondering?
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 6:27 PM on May 5, 2015
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 6:27 PM on May 5, 2015
If you're pondering whether carbon stored in fjords could reemerge in a catastrophic event, like I imagine might happen with methane in all those methane hydrates, and how bad that could be for us, then yes, yes I am pondering what you're pondering.
posted by spacewrench at 7:34 PM on May 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by spacewrench at 7:34 PM on May 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
We can't afjord that to happen
posted by Renoroc at 9:10 PM on May 5, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Renoroc at 9:10 PM on May 5, 2015 [4 favorites]
Fjord organic carbon burial rates are twice as large as the ocean average ... 0.1% of the surface area of oceans ... 11 percent of the carbon locked away in marine sediments each year
That doesn't add up. I love fjords though. If having more of them is the solution to global warming as suggested by the Daily Mail, I hope they put some of them in historically fjord-deprived places like South Dakota.
posted by sfenders at 4:13 AM on May 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
That doesn't add up. I love fjords though. If having more of them is the solution to global warming as suggested by the Daily Mail, I hope they put some of them in historically fjord-deprived places like South Dakota.
posted by sfenders at 4:13 AM on May 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
The world needs more fjords? Time for Operation Plowshare Mk II!
posted by whuppy at 8:21 AM on May 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by whuppy at 8:21 AM on May 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
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posted by Nerd of the North at 4:16 PM on May 5, 2015 [31 favorites]