Southern Ocean Saturated with CO2

Der Speigel is reporting that scientists have found that the Southern Ocean around Antarctica is saturated with carbon dioxide and is losing its capacity to serve as a "carbon sink" to mitigate global warming. This has happened about forty years ahead of predictions. Here's a quote:

The decline of Antarctica's Southern Ocean as a carbon sink may raise future CO2 levels and speed up global warming. Climate scientists have predicted this would happen. The trouble is that the changes appear to be happening some 40 years ahead of schedule.

"We thought we would be able to detect these only in the second half of this century, say 2050 or so," lead researcher Corrine Le Quere told Reuters. Data from 1981 to 2004, however, show the waters have been saturated with carbon dioxide since at least the 1980s. "So, I find this really quite alarming," she said.