global coupled carbon cycle-climate model

• Main Authors: M. Steinacher, F. Joos, T. L. Frölicher, G. -k. Plattner, S. C. Doney
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Arctic; Climate change; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.456.4205; http://pal.lternet.edu/docs/bibliography/Public/369lterc.pdf

Abstract. Ocean acidification from the uptake of anthro-pogenic carbon is simulated for the industrial period and IPCC SRES emission scenarios A2 and B1 with a global cou-pled carbon cycle-climate model. Earlier studies identified seawater saturation state with respect to aragonite, a mineral phase of calcium carbonate, as a key variable governing im-pacts on corals and other shell-forming organisms. Glob-ally in the A2 scenario, water saturated by more than 300%, considered suitable for coral growth, vanishes by 2070 AD (CO2≈630 ppm), and the ocean volume fraction occupied by saturated water decreases from 42 % to 25 % over this cen-tury. The largest simulated pH changes worldwide occur in Arctic surface waters, where hydrogen ion concentration increases by up to 185 % (1pH=−0.45). Projected climate change amplifies the decrease in Arctic surface mean satura-