To: Hawkmoon who wrote (36029 ) 12/4/2012 1:01:04 PM From: Alastair McIntosh 1 Recommendation Respond to Aside from CO2 sequestration there appear to be other phytoplankton climate forcings. Coccolithus pelagicus ), affect ocean albedo by greatly enhancing scattering at the surface with little increase in absorption. Acting like tiny mirrors, the coccoliths produced by these microorganisms reflect strongly with little wavelength dependence and back-scatter radiation at a level an order of magnitude higher than would be expected from Mie theory. Intense blooms can be seen from space and increase ocean albedo to 10%, several times higher than the reflectivity of barren waters. Such an increase over the entire Southern Ocean would equate to a forcing on the order of 1 W/m2 reduction in incoming solar energy, similar in magnitude to that estimated to arise from anthropogenic CO2. By shading the deeper waters and trapping energy near the surface where it can escape to the atmosphere, the canopy decreases heat input to the deep ocean which is transmitted around the globe. In areas where cloud condensation nuclei are scarce, this could increase planetary albedo by creating more and brighter clouds of greater longe vity.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
