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Last Update: 10/26/2026 at 11:33 PM EST
Ocean Carbon and Climate Feedbacks
Coverage from Oxford Earth Sciences, Nature, and others
Ocean carbon and climate feedbacks connect nutrient supply, marine productivity, oxygen levels, carbon burial, and atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Geological evidence and modeling have been used to examine, for example, how phosphorus pulses may have increased productivity and ocean anoxia during ancient mass extinctions, and how sea level can affect phosphate storage and long-term carbon burial. Ocean circulation also shapes where oxygen-poor waters form, while warming-linked changes in phytoplankton form another dimension of the research. Together, these mechanisms help explain how ocean processes influence climate and marine ecosystems across very different timescales.
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Important
Researchers using rhenium isotopes from Wales borehole rocks report increased sedimentary weathering as a CO2 source during the Toarcian ocean anoxic event 183 million years ago.
4/17/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Researchers at the University of Chicago and University of Southampton found that Earth's silicate-weathering climate feedback changed during Pangea's existence, based on simulations and 480 million years of reconstructions.
9/3/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Zunli Lu and Ros Rickaby report a sea level-phosphate-oxygen feedback that increased or decreased organic carbon burial and modulated atmospheric CO2 over 60 million years.
7/26/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Feifei Zhang and Nanjing University researchers report delta-7 Li proxy evidence and COPSE GEOCLIM modeling linking intensified silicate weathering to Late Paleozoic CO2 decline and glaciation onset.
4/20/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Researchers use a cellular phytoplankton allocation model in a global ocean biogeochemical framework to project warming-driven changes in protein, carbohydrate, and lipid composition across polar and subtropical regions.
3/30/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Stanford researchers measured marine animal oxygen consumption to explain Great Dying survival patterns during Permian-Triassic warming and deoxygenation.
7/12/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Researchers in New Zealand report over 25 years that shelf carbonate dissolution buffers seawater acidity on annual to decadal timescales, affecting ocean carbon uptake.
1/30/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Michigan State University researchers report Miocene foraminifera records and modeling show ocean circulation changed where Atlantic and Pacific oxygen-deficient zones formed.
6/26/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Mark Clementz-led research links 7 to 5.4 million years ago Andean Altiplano-Puna volcanism to Southern Ocean fertilization, CO2 drawdown, and Late Miocene global cooling.
4/14/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Matthew Dodd and colleagues report phosphorus-cycle disruptions in ancient oceans that coincide with Late Ordovician and Late Devonian extinctions and climate-linked cooling.
3/31/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
A Nature Communications study used carbonate-rock phosphorus records and modeling to link ancient ocean phosphorus pulses to Late Ordovician and Late Devonian extinctions.
3/31/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Matthew Dodd and colleagues linked modeled CO2 drawdown and global cooling, up to about 5 C, to phosphorus pulses during Late Ordovician and Late Devonian marine extinctions.
3/31/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
MIT researchers project sea ice loss and ocean warming will shift polar phytoplankton biochemistry by late century, lowering protein by up to 30%.
3/30/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Global climate-model experiments find CO2 ramping rate controls Arctic and Antarctic polar amplification through ocean heat transport, sea-ice change, and delayed feedbacks over millennia.
3/22/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
In Science Advances, Stief et al. report laboratory experiments showing that high hydrostatic pressure causes rapidly sinking diatom aggregates to leak labile dissolved organic matter, altering deep-ocean carbon flux pathways.
2/4/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Researchers in New Zealand report shelf carbonate dissolution buffering continental shelf waters off the southeastern coast on annual to decadal timescales.
2/2/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Researchers reveal reefs controlled climate recovery by shifting carbonate burial between shallow and deep oceans over hundreds of millions of years.
12/2/2025 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Researchers from University of Sydney and Universite Grenoble Alpes publish in 2025 in PNAS that coral reefs regulate carbon cycling and climate recovery.
12/1/2025 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
University of Cambridge scientists reported in a 2020s study that sediment cores off Portugal reveal a 2.7-million-year-old ice sheet–driven climate tipping point in the North Atlantic.
2/20/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
MIT researchers report model-based projections through 2100 that polar warming will remodel phytoplankton macromolecular composition, lowering protein and nutrients in Arctic and Antarctic regions.
3/30/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
An international research team reported in 2026 that CMIP6-class Earth System Models underrepresent calcifying plankton and shallow dissolution, potentially mischaracterizing global ocean carbon cycling.
2/8/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Researchers used carbonate-associated phosphate proxies from seven global marine sections to find phosphorus pulses coinciding with Late Ordovician and Late Devonian mass extinctions.
3/24/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
Ocean Conservancy representative Chris Dorsett warns that deep-sea fishing and mining could threaten the twilight zone ecosystem that transports carbon into the deep ocean.
7/21/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
MIT researchers modeled how warming oceans and declining sea ice may shift polar phytoplankton macromolecular composition through 2100 in ways consistent with Arctic and Antarctic samples.
3/30/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General
MIT researchers report that ocean warming and sea ice loss shift polar phytoplankton nutrient composition, reducing protein allocation by 15% to 30%.
4/4/2026 • Climate Science & Impacts • General