How does rising atmospheric CO2 affect marine organisms?

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Volume 7 Number 35:  1 September 2004

Temperature Record of the Week
This issue's Temperature Record of the week is from Big Timber, Montana. Visit our U.S. Climate Data section to plot and view these data for yourself.

Editorial
Temperature History of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica: Are air temperatures in the terrestrial Ross Sea region of Antarctica warming or cooling?  And on what timescale?  Also, how representative are they of the bulk of Antarctica?  Finally, what do they suggest about CO2-induced global warming?

Subject Index Summaries
Hurricanes (Atlantic Ocean - El Niņo Effect): Climate alarmists claim that future global warming will increase both the frequency and intensity of hurricanes.  One way to test this claim is to determine how these hurricane characteristics have varied in the past between warmer El Niņo years and cooler La Niņa years.  This summary reviews the results of several studies that have done just that.

Carbonyl Sulfide: Hundreds of scientific papers describe various aspects of the role played by the biological modification of the atmosphere's dimethyl sulfide concentration in determining climate change or stasis.  Far fewer studies address the analogous operations of earth's biosphere in achieving the same ends via modifications of the atmosphere's carbonyl sulfide concentration.  We here briefly review this much neglected subject.

Journal Reviews
A 217-Year Swedish Air Temperature History Derived from Yearly Growth Increments of Freshwater Pearl Mussels: What does it reveal about the nature of 20th-century global warming as experienced in Sweden?

A 400-Year Temperature History of Kunashir Island, Northwest Pacific: How does its temperature trend of the last century differ from that of the prior three centuries?  Would you believe not at all?

Nitrogen Fixation in Corals: New research indicates that corals may not be as limited by the state of their environment as they were once thought to be.

Effects of Elevated O3 and CO2 on Yellow Poplar Seedlings Over Five Seasons: Which wins?  The deleterious effect of a 50% increase in ambient ozone concentration or the beneficial effect of a doubling of the air's CO2 concentration?  And just how close is the decision?

Nitrogen Dynamics in the Duke Forest FACE Study: Theory and observation remain in conflict.  When can we expect a resolution of the issue?