DMS and Negative Climate Feedback

Key Feature of Negative Climate Feedback Phenomenon Confirmed

Dimethylsulfide or DMS, in the words of the authors of an important new paper (Vallina and Simo, 2007), "represents the largest natural source of atmospheric sulfur and [is] a major precursor of hygroscopic (i.e., cloud-forming) particles in clean air over the remote oceans, thereby acting to reduce the amount of solar radiation that crosses the atmosphere and is absorbed by the ocean." As such, it is widely acknowledged to be the primary player in a biologically-modulated negative climate feedback mechanism first described two decades ago in the classic paper of Charlson et al. (1987); and evidence continues to mount (see Dimethylsulfide in our Subject Index) that it may well prove the salvation of the planet by significantly muting anthropogenic-augmented CO2-induced global warming.

via CO2 Science