Quantifying the role of the Southern Ocean for anthropogenic CO2 uptake

二氧化碳是导致全球变暖和气候变化的最重要的温室气体。气候变化可能会给澳大利亚带来戏剧性的经济和环境后果。了解和理解复杂的碳循环是预测未来大气二氧化碳水平和管理气候变化的基础。这里提出的工作的目的是量化和提高我们对海洋在控制大气二氧化碳水平方面的作用的理解。这将通过结合新南威尔士大学和CSIRO(海洋研究)研究人员的建模和观测专业知识来完成。我们的工作将是第一次评估南大洋(和澳大利亚水域)作为碳汇的程度。这将减少预测未来大气二氧化碳水平的建模不确定性，也将对联邦政府在未来关于气候变化的国际谈判中具有价值。

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important greenhouse gas contributing to global warming and climate change. Climate change is likely to have dramatic economic and environmental consequences for Australia. Knowledge and understanding of the complex carbon cycle is fundamental for predicting future atmospheric CO2 levels and managing climate change. The aim of the work proposed here is to quantify and improve our understanding of the oceans role in controlling atmospheric CO2 levels. This will be done by combining modeling and observational expertise among UNSW and CSIRO (Marine Research) researchers. Our work will be the first to assess the extent of which the Southern Ocean (and Australian waters) acts as a carbon sink. This will reduce modeling uncertainties in predicting future atmospheric CO2 levels and will also be valuable to the federal government in future international negotiations on climate change.