7 August 2014 – Chiara Marieni
Rising CO2 levels: effects on marine environment and CCS as a mitigation strategy
The anthropogenic CO2 emissions, mainly linked to the burning of fossil fuels, are widely recognised as a cause of rising level of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. One of the challenges of our century is to understand the effects of this rise on the marine environment. Global warming and ocean acidification are two of the main consequences, which are themselves the roots of changes in the biological, physical, climatic, and human spheres.
Among all the mitigation strategies proposed by Geoengineering, the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a new methodology to capture CO2 from the atmosphere, and then storing it into a geological formation.
This presentation gives an introduction of CO2 atmospheric trends, from the past to the present. The effects that these levels of greenhouse gases are inducing (and will induce) on the marine environment are reviewed. Moreover, several mitigation strategies to reduce CO2 are presented. Particular attention is dedicated to the explanation of CCS, and of the advanced technology linked with it. In conclusion, the importance of CO2 reduction linked with climatic, anthropogenic, scientific, and ethical changes is underlined, together with the need of a public awareness of the greenhouse gases massive presence into the atmosphere!
Chiara Marieni is currently a third year PhD student at the University of Southampton, supervised by Prof Damon Teagle and Dr Juerg Matter. Her research is focused on carbon sequestration into deep-sea basalt formations (Marieni et al., 2013).
Chaira has previously studied Geology at the University of Milan. She has worked on the CO2 emissions from the ground on Mount Etna (Sicily) for her Bachelor Thesis and on the structural and petrographic aspects of the Argolis ophiolites (Greece) for her Master Thesis.
Next Marine Life Talk
4 September – Hadal Trenches – Matteo Ichino
Free admission – these talks are open to the public
This talk will be in the Henry Charnock Lecture Theatre, Level 4 and will start at 7.30pm, please arrive at 7.15pm.
Arrangements for wheelchairs must be made in advance. Unless it is possible to descend via the stairs in an emergency, access to upper floors cannot be permitted as lifts are automatically immobilised when the fire alarm is activated.
The National Oceanography Centre is reached via Dock Gate 4 (between Southampton’s Town Quay and Ocean Village).