Wednesday April 2, 2025
PhysOrg —
A pair of marine scientists at the University of Antwerp, in Belgium, working with a colleague from the University of Otago, in New Zealand, have found that simulations they created showed that trawling and dredging impact the processes behind natural ocean alkalinity production.
In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, Astrid Hylén, Filip Meysman and Sebastiaan van de Velde, note that such changes can prevent the sea from sequestering as much carbon dioxide as it would otherwise, reducing its impact on mitigating climate change.
Prior research has suggested that approximately 30% of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by humans is absorbed by the world’s oceans. The result has been an increase in acidification, which has led to damage to coral reefs and possibly other ecosystems.
In this new study, the research team noted that little research has been done regarding the ability of the sea to absorb carbon dioxide in places where the seafloor is being disturbed by human activities, such as trawling or dredging to increase water depth. To learn more about such an impact, the researchers built a computer simulation.