Assessing the potential of calcium-based artificial ocean alkalinization to mitigate rising atmospheric CO 2 and ocean acidification: MODELING MITIGATION POTENTIAL OF AOA
Open accessAbstract
[1] Enhancement of ocean alkalinity using calcium compounds, e.g., lime has been proposed to mitigate further increase of atmospheric CO2 and ocean acidification due to anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Using a global model, we show that such alkalinization has the potential to preserve pH and the saturation state of carbonate minerals at close to today's values. Effects of alkalinization persist after termination: Atmospheric CO2 and pH do not return to unmitigated levels. Only scenarios in which large amounts of alkalinity (i.e., in a ratio of 2:1 with respect to emitted CO2) are added over large ocean areas can boost oceanic CO2 uptake sufficiently to avoid further ocean acidification on the global scale, thereby elevating some key biogeochemical parameters, e.g., pH significantly above preindustrial levels. Smaller-scale alkalinization could counteract ocean acidification on a subregional or even local scale, e.g., in upwelling systems. The decrease of atmospheric CO2 would then be a small side effect.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The absorbed carbon can subsequently be stored in the ocean over geological timescales.
“The absorbed carbon can subsequently be stored in the ocean over geological timescales (Ilyina et al., 2013).”
From Biogeochemical responses to ocean alkalinity enhancement in the North China Sea (2026) · cites this paper as Ilyina et al., 2013
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 32 · Cited by 170
Research works printed but not linked: 16
- Archer, D. (2005), Fate of fossil fuel CO 2 in geologic time, J. Geophys. Res., 110, C09S05, doi:10.1029/2004JC002625. · DOI · Paper page
- Broecker, W. S., and T. Takahashi (1977), Neutralization of fossil fuel CO 2 by marine calcium carbonate, in The Fate of Fossil Fuel CO 2 in the Oceans, edited by N. R. Andersen and A. Malahoff, pp. 213-241, Plenum Press, New York.
- Cripps, G., S. Widdicombe, J. I. Spicer, and H. S. Findlay (2013), Biological impacts of enhanced alkalinity in Carcinus maenas, Mar. Pollut. Bull., 71, 190-198, doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2013.03.015. · DOI
- Feely, R. A., C. L. Sabine, K. Lee, W. Berelson, J. Kleypas, V. J. Fabry, and F. J. Millero (2004), Impact of anthropogenic CO 2 on the CaCO3 system in the oceans, Science, 305(5682), 362-366.
- Gattuso, J. P., and L. Hansson (Eds.) (2011), Ocean Acidification, Oxford Univ. Press, New York.
- Harvey, L. D. D. (2008), Mitigating the atmospheric CO 2 increase and ocean acidification by adding limestone powder to upwelling regions, J. Geophys. Res., 13, C04028, doi:10.1029/2007JC004373. · DOI
- Ilyina, T., and R. E. Zeebe (2012), Detection and projection of carbonate dis- solution in the water column and deep-sea sediments due to ocean acidifi- cation, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L06606, doi:10.1029/2012GL051272. · DOI
- Ilyina, T., R. E. Zeebe, E. Maier-Reimer, and C. Heinze (2009), Early detec- tion of ocean acidification effects on marine calcification, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 23, GB1008, doi:10.1029/2008GB003278. · DOI
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2005), Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage, 442 pp., Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, U. K. IPCC (2007), Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, edited by S. Solomon et al., pp. 996, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
- Key, R. M., et al. (2004), A global ocean carbon climatology: Results from Global Data Analysis Project (GLODAP), Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 18, GB4031, doi:10.1029/2004GB002247. · DOI
- Klaas, C., and D. E. Archer (2002), Association of sinking organic matter with various types of mineral ballast in the deep sea: Implications for the rain ratio, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 16(4,1116), doi:10.1029/ 2001GB001765. · DOI · Paper page
- Köhler, P., J. Hartmann, and D. A. Wolf-Gladrow (2010), Geoengineering potential of artificially enhanced silicate weathering of olivine, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 23, 20,228-20,233.
- Millero, F. J., R. Woosley, B. Ditrolio, and J. Waters (2009), Effects of ocean acidification on the speciation of metals in seawater, Oceanography, 22(4), 72-85.
- Munhoven, G. (2002), Glacial-interglacial changes of continental weathering: Estimates of the related CO 2 and HCO3-Flux variations and their uncer- tainties, Global Planet. Change, 33(1-2), 155-176.
- Ridgwell, A., T. J. Rodengen, and K. Kohfeld (2011), Geographical varia- tions in the effectiveness and side effects of deep ocean carbon sequestra- tion, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L17610, doi:10.1029/2011GL048423. · DOI
- Zeebe, R. E., and D. A. Wolf-Gladrow (2001), CO 2 in Seawater: Equilibrium, Kinetics, Isotopes, 346 pp., Elsevier, Amsterdam.
- Authors
- Ilyina, T., Wolf-Gladrow, D., Munhoven, G., & Heinze, C.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (DE)
- Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (DE)
- University of Liège (BE)
- Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (NO)
- Corresponding author
- Ilyina, Tatiana
- Venue
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2013-11-19
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 22
- Pages
- 5909-5914
- ISSN
- 0094-8276 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1649664029
- Cited by
- 170
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 24 · 2025: 23 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 1.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Geophysical Research Letters (publishedVersion)
- Flanders Marine Institute (Flanders Marine Institute) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar-und Meeresforschung (Alfred-Wegener-Institut) (acceptedVersion)
- Open Repository and Bibliography (University of Liège) (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- European Commission (264879)
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Bjerknessenteret for klimaforskning, Universitetet i Bergen
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Ocean Acidification Effects and Responses
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate Change and Geoengineering
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine and coastal ecosystems
- Keywords
- ocean alkalinity enhancement, ocean acidification, lime, seawater pH, ocean carbon uptake, upwelling systems, anthropogenic CO2 emissions, global ocean model
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
