Professor Corinne Le Quéré will present the Department of Environmental & Geographical Science seminar with a talk entitled, "The Global Carbon Budget:  Insights, impacts and lessons learned".  With the concentration of Carbon Dioxide(CO2) in the atmosphere now exceeding the symbolic mark of 400 parts per million, this presentation will detail what we understand of the response of the natural carbon reservoirs–the ocean and the terrestrial biosphere–to changes in atmospheric CO2.The presentation will hone in on changes in the Southern Ocean carbon sink,both looking at how intensifying wind speed affect the efficiency of the Southern Ocean CO2 sink, and at how grazing by krill changes our perspective on controlling factors of carbon export from the surface to the intermediate and deep ocean. Finally, the presentation will put the response of the CO2 sinks in the larger context of the recent trends in CO2 emissions,and discuss the likely trajectory for global CO2 emissions in the context of the Paris Agreement on climate change. 

Corinne Le Quéréis Professor of Climate Change Science and Policy at the University of East Angliaand Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, an interdisciplinary and pan-university research institute that works to inform sustainable responses to climate change.