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The Potential Impact of Nuclear Conflict on Ocean Acidification
Author(s) -
Lovenduski Nicole S.,
Harrison Cheryl S.,
Olivarez Holly,
Bardeen Charles G.,
Toon Owen B.,
Coupe Joshua,
Robock Alan,
Rohr Tyler,
Stevenson Samantha
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2019gl086246
Subject(s) - ocean acidification , aragonite , environmental science , anomaly (physics) , oceanography , carbon cycle , climatology , effects of global warming on oceans , saturation (graph theory) , atmospheric sciences , climate change , global warming , geology , ecosystem , ecology , mineralogy , calcite , physics , biology , condensed matter physics , mathematics , combinatorics
We demonstrate that the global cooling resulting from a range of nuclear conflict scenarios would temporarily increase the pH in the surface ocean by up to 0.06 units over a 5‐year period, briefly alleviating the decline in pH associated with ocean acidification. Conversely, the global cooling dissolves atmospheric carbon into the upper ocean, driving a 0.1 to 0.3 unit decrease in the aragonite saturation state ( Ω a r a g ) that persists for ∼ 10 years. The peak anomaly in pH occurs 2 years post conflict, while theΩ a r a ganomaly peaks 4‐ to 5‐years post conflict. The decrease inΩ a r a gwould exacerbate a primary threat of ocean acidification: the inability of marine calcifying organisms to maintain their shells/skeletons in a corrosive environment. Our results are based on sensitivity simulations conducted with a state‐of‐the‐art Earth system model integrated under various black carbon (soot) external forcings. Our findings suggest that regional nuclear conflict may have ramifications for global ocean acidification.