2023 Volume 79 Issue 17 Article ID: 23-17154
Climate change mitigation consists of three functions: absorption of atmospheric CO2 by the ocean, fixation of absorbed carbon through biological production, and sequestration of fixed carbon in deep sediments. Marine organisms, which are responsible for biological processes, are also affected by acidification. In this study, an ecosystem model that mechanistically understands, predicts, and evaluates these processes was applied to Tokyo Bay to analyze the interannual changes in climate change mitigation functions and their factors from the present day to the future (2000~2100 A.D.) in the urban coastal area based on changes in water temperature and atmospheric CO2 under the RCP8.5 scenario. The results showed that (1) absorption increases after 2040 A.D. due to an increase in total alkalinity (TA), (2) fixation increases with an increase in zooplankton, and (3) sequestration decreases after 2060 A.D. due to dissolution of calcium carbonate.
