Data from end of the last ice age illuminate the precarious
nature of global ocean chemistry
The ocean the Titanic sailed through just over 100 years ago
was very different from the one we swim in today. Global warming is increasing
ocean temperatures and harming marine food webs. Nitrogen run-off from
fertilizers is causing coastal dead zones. A McGill-led international research
team has now completed the first global study of changes that occurred in a
crucial component of ocean chemistry, the nitrogen cycle, at the end of the
last ice age. The results of their study confirm that oceans are good at
balancing the nitrogen cycle on a global scale. But the data also shows that it
is a slow process that may take many centuries, or even millennia, raising
worries about the effects of the scale and speed of current changes in the
ocean.