Posted on June 26, 2024

Despite the fact that the sample was collected from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, 45-years old drill core, the conditions were recreated.

Recently, scientists have published an article in Nature Communications, wherein the authors have stated that the further increase of the Earth atmospheric temperature could be even greater in case of the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) doubling in comparison with the previous researches estimations.

Geomicrobiologists from the Netherlands Institute of Sea Research and the universities of Utrecht and Bristol investigated sediments from the Pacific Ocean neighboring California coast and found out that there may be a temperature increase by 7 to 14 degrees Celsius.

Lead writer Caitlyn Witkowski reiterated the direction of their research while pointing out the gap between their results and future estimations by pointed out. 3 to 4. 5 degrees higher, which until now has been forecasted by the UN climate panel, IPCC. ”

The study used a 45-year old drill core obtained from the Pacific Ocean bottom and which contained climatic information for the past 18 million years. Jaap Sinninghe Damsté, a Professor for sedimentology, stated that he and his team were capable of concluding that the core was accumulated in oxygen-free conditions what consequently means that organic matter and carbon are saved there much better.

Yet, many creative approaches were used by the researchers to estimate previous sea water temperatures as well as the atmospheric CO2 concentration. To estimate temperature NIOZ’s TEX86 method was applied based on microbial membrane substances. To overcome the calculation problem, a new methodology using chlorophyll and cholesterol residing in the algae was constructed for the calculation of CO2.

It was found that the CO2 levels reduced to around 650 ppm 15 million years before to 280 ppm before industrialisation. In order to arrive at a concurring result, researchers similarly have discovered a direct link between derived temperatures and CO2 levels, where the global temperatures were about 15 million years ago were 4 degree centigrade higher than today.

Professor Damsté expressed that this rising trend is only a ‘snapshot’ of what the future holds if little actions are being done to minimise the CO2 emissions.

The study implies that it might be even more critical than currently estimated by the climate models, underlining the importance of climate interventions and find new technological solutions against the emissions’ increase.

Categories: Environment

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