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The effect of the ocean on the global carbon cycle

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  • The Carbon Dioxide Problem. An Interdisciplinary Survey
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Summary

The fate of fossil fuel CO2 in the ocean is discussed and a comparison is made with the natural oceanic cycle of carbon. The oceanic share of fossil fuel carbon, pressently about 40%, will decrease in the future. Much of the fossil fuel carbon will remain in the atmosphere, and will stay there for many centuries. In the long run, however, the ocean will bring to an end the fossil fuel excursion of atmospheric CO2-firstly by dissolution as bicarbonate and ultimately by burial in ocean sediments.

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  1. Institut für Umweltphysik, Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 366, D-69, Heidelberg, Federal Republic of Germany

    Wolfgang Roether

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  1. Wolfgang Roether
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Roether, W. The effect of the ocean on the global carbon cycle. Experientia 36, 1017–1025 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01965945

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01965945

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