Scum on seawaters can reduce carbon dioxide exchange between the atmosphere and the oceans

According to a team of researchers from Heriot-Watt, Newcastle and Exeter universisties, an invisible layer of scum on the sea surface could help to reduce carbon dioxide exchange between the athmosphere and the oceans. The plan to reduce the exchange by up to 50% was published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Monday. 

Scientists said that oceans absorb around a quarter of carbon dioxide produced by mankind: it’s the largest long-term sink of carbon on our planet. The violent rains across the sea help the exchange of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and the water, but now researchers can calculate the effect of “biological surfactants”. 

A team formed by members of the Natural Environment Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust and the European Space Agency create a system that could reproduce the effects of surfactants on seawaters and control them. According to their researches, with the help of surfactants the exchange of carbon dioxide could be reduced by up to 50%. 

It’s Dr Ryan Pereira, a researcher from Heriot-Watt University, who explain what they found: «As surface temperatures rise, so too do surfactants, which is why this is such a critical finding. The warmer the ocean surface gets, - Pereira said - the more surfactants we can expect, and an even greater reduction in gas exchange. What we discovered at 13 sites across the Atlantic Ocean is that biological surfactants suppress the rate of gas exchange caused by the wind». 

The team has working since 2014, when it collected samples in Atlantic Ocean. Now Dr Ian Ashton from Exeter University, said that «combining this new research with a wealth of satellite data available allows us to consider the effect of surfactants on gas exchange across the entire Atlantic Ocean, helping us to monitor carbon dioxide on a global scale».