The Deep Ocean's Carbon Exhaust
The deep ocean releases large amounts of old, pre-industrial carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere through upwelling in the Southern Ocean, which counters the marine carbon uptake occurring elsewhere. This Southern Ocean CO2 release is relevant to the global climate because its changes could alter...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt0j2415d9 2023-11-12T04:26:03+01:00 The Deep Ocean's Carbon Exhaust Chen, Haidi Haumann, F Alexander Talley, Lynne D Johnson, Kenneth S Sarmiento, Jorge L e2021gb007156 2022-07-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0j2415d9 unknown eScholarship, University of California qt0j2415d9 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0j2415d9 public Global Biogeochemical Cycles, vol 36, iss 7 Earth Sciences Oceanography Life Below Water carbon cycle ocean circulation Southern Ocean biogeochemistry Atmospheric Sciences Geochemistry Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences Geoinformatics Climate change impacts and adaptation article 2022 ftcdlib 2023-10-16T18:05:45Z The deep ocean releases large amounts of old, pre-industrial carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere through upwelling in the Southern Ocean, which counters the marine carbon uptake occurring elsewhere. This Southern Ocean CO2 release is relevant to the global climate because its changes could alter atmospheric CO2 levels on long time scales, and also affects the present-day potential of the Southern Ocean to take up anthropogenic CO2. Here, year-round profiling float measurements show that this CO2 release arises from a zonal band of upwelling waters between the Subantarctic Front and wintertime sea-ice edge. This band of high CO2 subsurface water coincides with the outcropping of the 27.8kg m-3 isoneutral density surface that characterizes Indo-Pacific Deep Water (IPDW). It has a potential partial pressure of CO2 exceeding current atmospheric CO2 levels (∆PCO2) by 175±32μatm. Ship-based measurements reveal that IPDW exhibits a distinct ∆PCO2 maximum in the ocean, which is set by remineralization of organic carbon and originates from the northern Pacific and Indian Ocean basins. Below this IPDW layer, the carbon content increases downwards, whereas ∆PCO2 decreases. Most of this vertical ∆PCO2 decline results from decreasing temperatures and increasing alkalinity due to an increased fraction of calcium carbonate dissolution. These two factors limit the CO2 outgassing from the high-carbon content deep waters on more southerly surface outcrops. Our results imply that the response of Southern Ocean CO2 fluxes to possible future changes in upwelling are sensitive to the subsurface carbon chemistry set by the vertical remineralization and dissolution profiles. Article in Journal/Newspaper Sea ice Southern Ocean University of California: eScholarship Southern Ocean Pacific Indian |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Life Below Water carbon cycle ocean circulation Southern Ocean biogeochemistry Atmospheric Sciences Geochemistry Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences Geoinformatics Climate change impacts and adaptation |
spellingShingle |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Life Below Water carbon cycle ocean circulation Southern Ocean biogeochemistry Atmospheric Sciences Geochemistry Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences Geoinformatics Climate change impacts and adaptation Chen, Haidi Haumann, F Alexander Talley, Lynne D Johnson, Kenneth S Sarmiento, Jorge L The Deep Ocean's Carbon Exhaust |
topic_facet |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Life Below Water carbon cycle ocean circulation Southern Ocean biogeochemistry Atmospheric Sciences Geochemistry Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences Geoinformatics Climate change impacts and adaptation |
description |
The deep ocean releases large amounts of old, pre-industrial carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere through upwelling in the Southern Ocean, which counters the marine carbon uptake occurring elsewhere. This Southern Ocean CO2 release is relevant to the global climate because its changes could alter atmospheric CO2 levels on long time scales, and also affects the present-day potential of the Southern Ocean to take up anthropogenic CO2. Here, year-round profiling float measurements show that this CO2 release arises from a zonal band of upwelling waters between the Subantarctic Front and wintertime sea-ice edge. This band of high CO2 subsurface water coincides with the outcropping of the 27.8kg m-3 isoneutral density surface that characterizes Indo-Pacific Deep Water (IPDW). It has a potential partial pressure of CO2 exceeding current atmospheric CO2 levels (∆PCO2) by 175±32μatm. Ship-based measurements reveal that IPDW exhibits a distinct ∆PCO2 maximum in the ocean, which is set by remineralization of organic carbon and originates from the northern Pacific and Indian Ocean basins. Below this IPDW layer, the carbon content increases downwards, whereas ∆PCO2 decreases. Most of this vertical ∆PCO2 decline results from decreasing temperatures and increasing alkalinity due to an increased fraction of calcium carbonate dissolution. These two factors limit the CO2 outgassing from the high-carbon content deep waters on more southerly surface outcrops. Our results imply that the response of Southern Ocean CO2 fluxes to possible future changes in upwelling are sensitive to the subsurface carbon chemistry set by the vertical remineralization and dissolution profiles. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Chen, Haidi Haumann, F Alexander Talley, Lynne D Johnson, Kenneth S Sarmiento, Jorge L |
author_facet |
Chen, Haidi Haumann, F Alexander Talley, Lynne D Johnson, Kenneth S Sarmiento, Jorge L |
author_sort |
Chen, Haidi |
title |
The Deep Ocean's Carbon Exhaust |
title_short |
The Deep Ocean's Carbon Exhaust |
title_full |
The Deep Ocean's Carbon Exhaust |
title_fullStr |
The Deep Ocean's Carbon Exhaust |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Deep Ocean's Carbon Exhaust |
title_sort |
deep ocean's carbon exhaust |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0j2415d9 |
op_coverage |
e2021gb007156 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean Pacific Indian |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean Pacific Indian |
genre |
Sea ice Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Sea ice Southern Ocean |
op_source |
Global Biogeochemical Cycles, vol 36, iss 7 |
op_relation |
qt0j2415d9 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0j2415d9 |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1782340187089534976 |