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Politics : Manmade Global Warming, A hoax? A Scam? or a Doomsday Cult?
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Hawkmoon
To: Hawkmoon who wrote (3427)12/8/2013 2:42:41 PM
From: Jorj X Mckie1 Recommendation  Read Replies (1) of 4326
 
That's what I'm thinking as well.. Calcium is either combined with Carbon to form a carbonate, or it's dissolved within the seawater.

Not quite sure how it is just "consumed" and disappears, but maybe it settles to the ocean floor, as with Iron?

This one is a pretty complex issue. There is common consensus among the AGW crowd that the increased atmospheric CO2 creates more carbonic acid in the oceans which in turn causes more bicarbonate (HCO3) ions which increases the ocean's acidity (lowers the pH) by releasing more hydrogen ions. The consensus among the AGW crowd is that calcium in the form of aragonite (CaCO3) is where marine life gets its calcium to form the biogenic calcium carbonate "hard structures" instead of HCO3. So, the issue is not just the generic calcium concentration, but the form that the calcium is in. In basic terms....Aragonite good, bicarbonate bad.

If you accept that aragonite saturation is the key issue, there is still the chicken and the egg question. That question being, is increased CO2 causing the warming or is warming causing the increased CO2 (through oceanic outgassing). This becomes an even more important question when it is clear that the aragonite saturation zone changes with the temperature of the ocean water.

It appears that many of the beliefs about how marine life reacts to higher acidity are based on artificial experiments that used HCl to get the desired pH levels during testing. At least one study shows that it is the use of HCl in the study that throws all of the results off and pretty much calls into question all of the studies out there that suggest that ocean acidification is a serious global warming issue.

The ocean floor is the largest calcium and carbon sink on earth. One thing that we never really hear about is the role that tectonics have on our climate. The ocean floors record the carbon and calcium cycles in the strata. And if undisturbed, should have a leveling effect on the cycles as the material is subducted (and later released through other volcanic activity). But that assumes even distribution over time and doesn't account for ocean currents that may cause variations in the material that is subducted. Hell, when it comes to climate and ocean chemistry, it matters if the volcanic activity is above or below the surface of the ocean. When it comes to calcium concentration and CO2 release, it matters if the volcanic activity is at a hot spot, rift or subduction zone.

There are enough buzz words above that anybody can do their google research on the topic.
Ocean Acidification
Biogenic Calcification
Aragonite Saturation
HCO3
CaCO3
carbonate
bicarbonate
Calcium Carbonate
Calcite

But I strongly recommend reading this study before accepting the AGW consensus.
dl.uncw.edu

It appears that this is yet another are of the science that is not settled.
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