ABSTRACT
During recent years, research on the unprecedented increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration and consequent global warming and ocean acidification have become the most burgeoning and hottest area of research. This is evidenced by the fact that citation rates of publications in this area run to hundreds and thousands (e.g. Orr et al., 2005 cited 2,746 times as on 24.08.2016). Due to progressively increasing anthropogenic activity, the atmospheric CO2 concentration has increased from 280 ppm in 1950 to 385 ppm in 2010 (IPCC, 2013). This increase is 100 times faster than that prior to some 650,000 years (Siegenthaler et al., 2005). Atmospheric CO2 concentration, especially due to combustion of fossil fuels, has increased at the rate of 1%/year during the 20th century and is now increasing ~ 3%/year (see Talmage and Gobler, 2011). As a consequence, global mean temperature has increased by 0.2°C/decade over the last 30 years (see Pandian, 2014). Based on CO2 emissions and circulation models, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has indicated that the atmospheric CO2 concentration is expected to reach 550 and 750 ppm by the middle and end of this century, respectively.
