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Invisible Scum on Sea Cuts CO2 Exchange With Air 'By Up To 50%' (theguardian.com)
An invisible layer of scum on the sea surface can reduce carbon dioxide exchange between the atmosphere and the oceans by up to 50%, scientists have discovered. From a report: Researchers from Heriot-Watt, Newcastle and Exeter universities say the findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience on Monday, have major implications for predicting our future climate. The world's oceans absorb around a quarter of all man-made carbon dioxide emissions, making them the largest long-term sink of carbon on Earth. Greater sea turbulence increases gas exchange between the atmosphere and oceans and until now it was difficult to calculate the effect of "biological surfactants." Teams from the Natural Environment Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust and the European Space Agency developed a system that compares "the surfactant effect" between different seawaters in real time. They found surfactants can reduce carbon dioxide exchange by up to 50%.
Yea science!
This isn't a problem. The scum is biological. Further it is slowing the rate of change by 50%. The oceans and the atmosphere will still reach the same equilibrium given time. Also we don't want more CO2 in the oceans. It causes acidification and messes with all kinds of ocean life. You could debate where it does more harm, atmosphere or ocean, but ideally we don't want more in either place.
Deep water stores more CO2 due to its higher pressure, but natural events can cause overturn. I'm not sure any climate models account for that. A major storm, earthquake or landslide could break up the layer while bringing the high concentrations of CO2 (and other gases) to the surface to effervesce. This could explains some of the unexplained coastal die offs. The events at Lake Nyos killed hundreds of people.