A five degree increase in ocean temperatures could be enough to set off enormous carbon dioxide emissions.
Research conducted off of the Svalbard Islands has revealed that carbon-storing Arctic plankton turn from stores for carbon dioxide to a source of carbon dioxide in water warmers.
Sea waters in excess of five degrees Celsius can be warm enough to transform the plankton, a temperature that scientists say will be observed more regularly over the coming decades.
Read more at The University of Western Australia