[Coral-List] "Growing" calcium-carbonate reefs

[John Ware]

Dear List and Justin,

It is hard to believe that as recently as 1991 (the paper indicated by 
Hu: Solar-Generated Building Material from Seawater as a Sink for Carbon 
by Wolf H. Hilbertz, Ambio) the deposition of calcium carbonate in 
seawater would be considered a SINK for CO2.

It has been known for well over a 100 yrs, the chemistry is not 
difficult, that the deposition of CaCO3 in seawater (or freshwater for 
that matter) is  SOURCE of CO2 to the atmosphere.  See for example:

Chamberlin,TC (1898): The influence of great epochs of limestone formation upon the constitution of the atmosphere. J. Geol. VI, 609-621.

Ware,JR; Smith,SV; Reaka-Kudla,ML (1992): Coral reefs: Sources or sinks of atmospheric CO2? Coral Reefs 11(3), 127-130.

I sincerely hope that we no longer consider the deposition of CaCO3 in water, whether by electrical or biological means, as a possible sink of CO2.

John
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    *                      John R. Ware, PhD                    *
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