How can oceans help us capture carbon?
The Climate Question
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Climate Change and Diatoms
As we pump more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, more and more of it has dissolved into sea water. If diatoms don't get eaten, they die and start to drift downwards through the water. And as they do, they get caught up with other things floating into the depths, including poo. Anything that produces feces in these top layers of the ocean or that dies or that sloughs creates something called marine snow. When marine snow reaches the bottom of the sea, it gets held there by the weight of the water above it.
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