On the occasion of the  UN Decade of Ocean Science (#SDG14), which aims to create a common framework ensuring that marine sciences fully support actions to sustainably manage the world’s oceans and seas and to achieve the 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goals, the CSIC marine centres IMEDEA, CEAB, ICM, ICMAN and IIM have organised a joint lecture series entitled “Seamposium: Dealing with new frontiers of marine research”, creating a discussion forum around a monthly seminar delivered by a recognised expert in different marine topics.

The rapidly changing global and ocean carbon sinks

As human activities continue to emit an always growing quantity of greenhouse gases, terrestrial vegetation and oceans are responding in unprecedented ways to changes in both atmospheric composition and climate. How carbon-climate feedbacks develop in the future and affect the strength of the carbon sinks will determine the level of mitigation required to stabilize the global climate system. I’ll provide an overview of the current state of the carbon cycle, the role of the oceans in modulating the concentrations of atmospheric CO2, and the future evolution of the carbon sinks under different warming scenarios.