What drives the latitudinal gradient in open-ocean surface dissolved inorganic carbon concentration?
Previous work has not led to a clear understanding of the causes of spatial pattern in global surface ocean dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), which generally increases polewards. Here, we revisit this question by investigating the drivers of observed latitudinal gradients in surface salinity-normali...
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ftarchimer:oai:archimer.ifremer.fr:78726 2023-05-15T18:25:12+02:00 What drives the latitudinal gradient in open-ocean surface dissolved inorganic carbon concentration? Wu, Yingxu Hain, Mathis P. Humphreys, Matthew P. Hartman, Sue Tyrrell, Toby 2019-07 application/pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00675/78726/80988.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00675/78726/80989.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2661-2019 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00675/78726/ eng eng Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00675/78726/80988.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00675/78726/80989.pdf doi:10.5194/bg-16-2661-2019 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00675/78726/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use Biogeosciences (1726-4170) (Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh), 2019-07 , Vol. 16 , N. 13 , P. 2661-2681 text Publication info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2019 ftarchimer https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2661-2019 2021-09-23T20:36:48Z Previous work has not led to a clear understanding of the causes of spatial pattern in global surface ocean dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), which generally increases polewards. Here, we revisit this question by investigating the drivers of observed latitudinal gradients in surface salinity-normalized DIC (nDIC) using the Global Ocean Data Analysis Project version 2 (GLODAPv2) database. We used the database to test three different hypotheses for the driver producing the observed increase in surface nDIC from low to high latitudes. These are (1) sea surface temperature, through its effect on the CO2 system equilibrium constants, (2) salinity-related total alkalinity (TA), and (3) high-latitude upwelling of DIC- and TA-rich deep waters. We find that temperature and upwelling are the two major drivers. TA effects generally oppose the observed gradient, except where higher values are introduced in upwelled waters. Temperature-driven effects explain the majority of the surface nDIC latitudinal gradient (182 of the 223 mu mol kg(-1) increase from the tropics to the high-latitude Southern Ocean). Upwelling, which has not previously been considered as a major driver, additionally drives a substantial latitudinal gradient. Its immediate impact, prior to any induced air-sea CO2 exchange, is to raise Southern Ocean nDIC by 220 mu mol kg(-1) above the average low-latitude value. However, this immediate effect is transitory. The long-term impact of upwelling (brought about by increasing TA), which would persist even if gas exchange were to return the surface ocean to the same CO2 as without upwelling, is to increase nDIC by 74 mu mol kg(-1) above the low-latitude average. Article in Journal/Newspaper Southern Ocean Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) Southern Ocean Biogeosciences 16 13 2661 2681 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Archimer (Archive Institutionnelle de l'Ifremer - Institut français de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer) |
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ftarchimer |
language |
English |
description |
Previous work has not led to a clear understanding of the causes of spatial pattern in global surface ocean dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), which generally increases polewards. Here, we revisit this question by investigating the drivers of observed latitudinal gradients in surface salinity-normalized DIC (nDIC) using the Global Ocean Data Analysis Project version 2 (GLODAPv2) database. We used the database to test three different hypotheses for the driver producing the observed increase in surface nDIC from low to high latitudes. These are (1) sea surface temperature, through its effect on the CO2 system equilibrium constants, (2) salinity-related total alkalinity (TA), and (3) high-latitude upwelling of DIC- and TA-rich deep waters. We find that temperature and upwelling are the two major drivers. TA effects generally oppose the observed gradient, except where higher values are introduced in upwelled waters. Temperature-driven effects explain the majority of the surface nDIC latitudinal gradient (182 of the 223 mu mol kg(-1) increase from the tropics to the high-latitude Southern Ocean). Upwelling, which has not previously been considered as a major driver, additionally drives a substantial latitudinal gradient. Its immediate impact, prior to any induced air-sea CO2 exchange, is to raise Southern Ocean nDIC by 220 mu mol kg(-1) above the average low-latitude value. However, this immediate effect is transitory. The long-term impact of upwelling (brought about by increasing TA), which would persist even if gas exchange were to return the surface ocean to the same CO2 as without upwelling, is to increase nDIC by 74 mu mol kg(-1) above the low-latitude average. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wu, Yingxu Hain, Mathis P. Humphreys, Matthew P. Hartman, Sue Tyrrell, Toby |
spellingShingle |
Wu, Yingxu Hain, Mathis P. Humphreys, Matthew P. Hartman, Sue Tyrrell, Toby What drives the latitudinal gradient in open-ocean surface dissolved inorganic carbon concentration? |
author_facet |
Wu, Yingxu Hain, Mathis P. Humphreys, Matthew P. Hartman, Sue Tyrrell, Toby |
author_sort |
Wu, Yingxu |
title |
What drives the latitudinal gradient in open-ocean surface dissolved inorganic carbon concentration? |
title_short |
What drives the latitudinal gradient in open-ocean surface dissolved inorganic carbon concentration? |
title_full |
What drives the latitudinal gradient in open-ocean surface dissolved inorganic carbon concentration? |
title_fullStr |
What drives the latitudinal gradient in open-ocean surface dissolved inorganic carbon concentration? |
title_full_unstemmed |
What drives the latitudinal gradient in open-ocean surface dissolved inorganic carbon concentration? |
title_sort |
what drives the latitudinal gradient in open-ocean surface dissolved inorganic carbon concentration? |
publisher |
Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00675/78726/80988.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00675/78726/80989.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2661-2019 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00675/78726/ |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Biogeosciences (1726-4170) (Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh), 2019-07 , Vol. 16 , N. 13 , P. 2661-2681 |
op_relation |
https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00675/78726/80988.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00675/78726/80989.pdf doi:10.5194/bg-16-2661-2019 https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00675/78726/ |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess restricted use |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2661-2019 |
container_title |
Biogeosciences |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
13 |
container_start_page |
2661 |
op_container_end_page |
2681 |
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