Vuk11 wrote on Sep 17
th, 2013 at 12:12pm:
With the ocean warming and acidifcation, do they need to be at certain depth to effect these ecosystems?
What I mean is, if the leaked draft is is correct and the readings are correct this time around (assuming they've fixed Argo or using a different method), the report reads:
"Largest warming is found near the sea surface (>0.1°C per decade in the upper 75 m), decreasing to about 0.015°C per decade by 700 m, for the time period 1971 to 2010. It is likely that the deep ocean has warmed below 3000 m depth since the 1990s. The global ocean has warmed at a rate of <0.01°C per decade below 4000 m over this time interval."
If the majority of this slight warming trend effect mainly the surface, to such a small degree, over a long period of time would this even effect say organisms on the sea bed?
Oceanography is not my field, but I'll do my best. I guess you've answered the question yourself to some extent. The warming effect and the acidification effect tend to affect mainly the top oceanic "mixed layer" . The mixed layer varies depending on season and location. For example, the Coral Sea has a mixed layer depth of 20 to 60 metres, whereas for parts of the Southern Ocean, it's as much as 140 metres. This affects the efficiency of the carbon sink to some extent (storms are a good thing in a way), and it depends on storm severity. Increased storm severity results in a deeper mixed layer.
Will the ocean bed eventually warm? Well the fossil record shows that it will. There have been studies of Ocean floor temperatures using oxygen isotope studies in carbonates which show that Ocean floor temperatures of up to 4 degrees higher than those of today during the PETM (Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum). This occurred over a very short geological period of around 20,000 years. (but not as rapid as today's spike)
This period was associated with the release of methane clathrates and extinction of certain organisms that lived on the sea bed (benthic foraminifera (forams for short). I wouldn't worry about that for several thousand years.
Quote:There were a few things in the report mentions that before, as far as solar forcing went, they were only considering TSI? (Solar irradiance)?, but are now considering new factors?
They also fail to mention these new factors later on and include the usual dismissal of TSI.
Cheers.
TSI is Total Solar Irradiance. The two main authorities on this are PMOD in Davos, Switzerland and the Max Planck institute in Belgium .
I'll read the final report when it's issued later this month. I'm just guessing here, but another possible effect to consider is the reverse greenhouse effect caused by incident broad spectrum radiation from major solar storm activity. It's a very minor effect, but I guess they are trying to improve precision.
I suppose you've seen the graphs of TSI from PMOD? There was a discrepancy of 5 Wm-2 between the Acrimsat readings and the earlier Nimbus 7 and ERBS results, known as the ACRIM Gap. There has been some recent work done in that area to tie in the datasets.
(edit - fixed some terrible typos)