The Indian Ocean's breathing is changing — and scientists have mapped how

The Indian Ocean breathes — taking in carbon dioxide in some seasons and regions, releasing it in others — and that breathing is changing. Analysing forty years of data, Dr Apurva Padamanbh Joshi of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services and colleagues report in Geophysical Research Letters that seasonal swings in CO2 exchange have grown 48% in the equatorial Indian Ocean and 23% in its southern waters, while average absorption has increased in the south. Read honestly, the study does not say the ocean is simply 'saving us': oceans absorbed about 26% of human-caused CO2 in the last decade, and what this work changes is the map — which parts of the ocean absorb, which release, and when. For the more than a billion people whose weather, fisheries and farms depend on this ocean, a sharper map of its breathing means sharper forecasts, and sharper forecasts mean better decisions.

SDG 13 · Climate action