Oceans and the Atmospheric Carbon Content
Oceans and the Atmospheric Carbon Content, presents an interdisciplinary overview of the role of the oceans as a carbon sink and its relation with pH increasing trends and climate change. This volume discusses topics such as: climate variability during th
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Pedro Duarte J. Magdalena Santana-Casiano ●
Editors
Oceans and the Atmospheric Carbon Content
Editors Pedro Duarte University Fernando Pessoa, Porto Portugal [email protected]
J. Magdalena Santana-Casiano Department of Chemistry University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Spain [email protected]
ISBN 978-90-481-9820-7 e-ISBN 978-90-481-9821-4 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-9821-4 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: PCN applied for © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Most of the chapters of this book were presented as oral communications at the Seasink conference that was held at University Fernando Pessoa, Oporto, Portugal, between the 26th and the 28th of June 2008. The main objective of this conference was to discuss the role of the oceans as a sink for most of the residues from human activities. The conference had several sessions devoted to such topics as organic and inorganic compounds and their effects, global changes, regional approaches to pollution problems and future prospects with respect to the assessment of human impacts upon the marine environment. Some time before the conference, we were invited by Springer to prepare a book on part of the conference topics. Considering the communications presented at the conference and the actuality of issues related to climate change and all its direct and indirect effects upon the oceans, it seemed a good opportunity to prepare a book about the role of the oceans as a carbon sink. In the 2007 synthesis report prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) it is stated that: Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level
In spite of the fact that some people within the scientific community remain skeptical about the causes and the relevance of climate change patterns, there seems to be, at least, a reasonable doubt about its existence and its consequences upon the biosphere. Therefore, it seems reasonable to follow the precautionary principle and try to anticipate and mitigate those consequences. Historically, there is an important time lag between the environmental alerts raised by the scientific community and the political response of human society to those alerts, as discussed in the book “Limits to Growth” by Meadows et al., published in 2004. It is perhaps time to reduce the mentioned time lag and we
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