Rising atmospheric CO2 leads to large impact of biology on Southern Ocean CO2 uptake via changes of the Revelle factor
The Southern Ocean is a key region for global carbon uptake and is characterized by a strong seasonality with the annual CO2 uptake being mediated by biological carbon drawdown in summer. Here we show that the contribution of biology to CO2 uptake will become even more important until 2100. This is...
| Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
Wiley
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37544/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/37544/1/Hauck2015_GRL.pdf https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.45163 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.45163.d001 |
| Summary: | The Southern Ocean is a key region for global carbon uptake and is characterized by a strong seasonality with the annual CO2 uptake being mediated by biological carbon drawdown in summer. Here we show that the contribution of biology to CO2 uptake will become even more important until 2100. This is the case even if biological production remains unaltered and can be explained by the decreasing buffer capacity of the ocean as its carbon content increases. The same amount of biological carbon drawdown leads to a more than twice as large reduction in CO2(aq) concentration and hence to a larger CO2 gradient between ocean and atmosphere that drives the gas exchange. While the winter uptake south of 44°S changes little, the summer uptake increases largely and is responsible for the annual mean response. The combination of decreasing buffer capacity and strong seasonality of biological carbon drawdown introduces a strong and increasing seasonality in the anthropogenic carbon uptake. |
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