Temperature dependence of CO2-enhanced primary production in the European Arctic Ocean

• Published in: Nature Climate Change
• Main Authors: Holding, Johnna M., Duarte, Carlos M., Sanz-Martín, Marina, Mesa, Elena, Arrieta López de Uralde, Jesús M., Hendriks, Iris E., García-Corral, Lara S., Regaudie de Gioux, Aurore, Delgado Huertas, Antonio, Agustí, Susana
• Other Authors: European Commission, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España), Research Council of Norway, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), La Caixa
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2015
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/133303; https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2768; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000780; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003329; https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003339

Johnna M. Holding et al. The Arctic Ocean is warming at two to three times the global rate and is perceived to be a bellwether for ocean acidification. Increased CO concentrations are expected to have a fertilization effect on marine autotrophs, and higher temperatures should lead to increased rates of planktonic primary production. Yet, simultaneous assessment of warming and increased CO on primary production in the Arctic has not been conducted. Here we test the expectation that CO-enhanced gross primary production (GPP) may be temperature dependent, using data from several oceanographic cruises and experiments from both spring and summer in the European sector of the Arctic Ocean. Results confirm that CO enhances GPP (by a factor of up to ten) over a range of 145-2,099μatm; however, the greatest effects are observed only at lower temperatures and are constrained by nutrient and light availability to the spring period. The temperature dependence of CO-enhanced primary production has significant implications for metabolic balance in a warmer, CO-enriched Arctic Ocean in the future. In particular, it indicates that a twofold increase in primary production during the spring is likely in the Arctic. This research was supported by the Arctic Tipping Points project (http://www.eu-atp.org), funded by the Framework Program 7 of the European Union (no. 226248), the ATOS and ARCTICMET projects, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (no. POL2006-00550/CTM and CTM2011-15792-E, respectively), and the CARBONBRIDGE project, funded by the Norwegian Research Council (no. 226415). J.M.H. was supported by a JAE fellowship (CSIC, Spain). M.S.-M. was funded by Fundación 'La Caixa' PhD grants (Spain) Peer Reviewed