Sea-ice carbon biogeochemistry: Relationship to atmospheric CO2 fluxes.

• Main Authors: Miller L. A, O. Owens, A. Mucci, T. N. Papakyriakou, N. E. Sutherland, J. Ehn
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.543.2660; http://modb.oce.ulg.ac.be/colloquium/miller.pdf

Recent observations of significant carbon dioxide fluxes above first year sea ice [Pakapkyriakou et al., 2004; Semelitov et al., 2004] have generated fundamental questions about the mechanisms that could possibly be supporting these fluxes, which can be quite large at times. Based on the limited information currently available about carbon transport and storage in sea ice, biological activity, inorganic carbonate geochemistry, and brine and gas permeability, as well as snow cover, may all be contributing to the observed CO2 fluxes. While unable to definitively answer the question of what mechanism(s) are responsible, recent results from a 6-month ice time series from the coastal Arctic Ocean have refined our understanding of the processes occurring in sea ice that control carbon cycling and established what future work is needed to fully comprehend the role