1. What’s the story?

2. Key Questions What is the role of oceans as a store and source of carbon dioxide (CO2) What happens if the oceans absorb less CO2?

3. Carbon dioxide and carbon sink Carbon dioxide (CO2) Carbon dioxide is a gas. It occurs naturally and is also a by- product of human activities such as burning fossil fuels. It is the principal greenhouse gas produced by human activity. Carbon sink Any process, activity or mechanism that removes carbon from the atmosphere. The biggest carbon sinks are the world's oceans, forests and soils, which absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere.

4. This carbon cycle diagram shows the storage and annual exchange of carbon in gigatons - or billions of tons - of Carbon (GtC). Burning fossil fuels by people adds about 5.5 GtC of carbon per year into the atmosphere.

5. The distribution of CO2 in the oceans The spread of carbon dioxide in the world’s oceans is uneven. Have a look at the map… Can you think why there might be more carbon dioxide in some places than others?

6. Annual mean sea surface dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) for the present day (1990’s) from the Global Data Analysis Project Climatology. Original mass units (kg -1 ) converted to volume units (m -3 ) Note that the GLODAP climatology is missing data in certain oceanic provinces including the Arctic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Malay Archipelago.

7. What will happen if the carbon cycle is altered? Read your BBC article about carbon and the oceans You need to read the article and summarise the article with no more than 5 key points. You will then need to explain these to the group.

8. Newsnight’s arctic adventure (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes /newsnight/7522327.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes /newsnight/7522327.stm Watch and note

9. This carbon cycle diagram shows the storage and annual exchange of carbon in gigatons - or billions of tons - of Carbon (GtC). Burning fossil fuels by people adds about 5.5 GtC of carbon per year into the atmosphere.