Science Media Centre

New Zealand’s stunning Fiordland punches above its weight when it comes to storing organic carbon, according to a new analysis from US and New Zealand researchers published in Nature Geoscience this week. The team of scientists, which includes the University of Otago’s Dr Candida Savage, estimate that about 18 million tonnes of organic carbon is […]

Northern hemisphere researchers who put tonnes of iron into the Southern Ocean say it not only triggered a massive algal bloom, but that dying phytoplankton carried carbon from the atmosphere into the deep ocean. The experiment, published in the journal Nature, counters previous research findings which raised questions about the efficiency of  fertilising algal blooms […]

Will the Southern Ocean carbon sink hold? Ice core records show there was a sharp rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere – a nearly 50% increase – at the end of the last ice age. Scientists have long puzzled over the origin of all the extra CO2 that appeared as the great ice sheets […]

Ice core records show there was a sharp rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — a  nearly 50% increase — at the end of the last ice age. Scientists have long puzzled over the origin of all the extra CO2 that appeared as the great ice sheets melted. Now, new evidence published in Science (with accompanying Perspective) […]

Eloise Gibson writes about a recent report which suggests that, while the global recession did impact greenhouse gas emissions a little, the effect was not significant. Indeed, the report suggests that as economies recover, so too will emissions, with the worry being the the earth’s natural carbon sinks could be overloaded if emissions continue to […]

While natural carbon sinks have historically been able to absorb over half of global carbon dioxide emissions, this may no longer be the case if these emissions continue to increase as they have, say scientists from leading climate research group the Global Carbon Project (GCP). In addition, carbon dioxide emissions are still rising, to reach […]