Response of CO2 sink and biogeochemistry to sea-ice loss in the western Arctic Ocean ...

• Main Author: Ouyang, Zhangxian
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Delaware 2021
• Subjects: Arctic Ocean; Climate Change; CO2; Sea Ice; Arctic; Climate change; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.58088/e1gw-3c48; https://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/29339

The oceanic uptake of atmospheric CO2 is of global importance as it affects the pace of climate change. The Arctic Ocean acts as a carbon sink for atmospheric CO2, benefiting from high solubility of CO2 in cold seawater and high summer biological production. It has been known that amplified warming and accelerated sea ice loss in the Arctic Ocean since 1980s have profoundly altered the Arctic Ocean environment and related biogeochemical processes. However, less is known about how oceanic CO2 uptake and biological production changes in different biogeochemical provinces in respond to warming and sea ice loss and how fast are these changes. Based on results from two cruises conducted in the western Arctic Ocean in 2016 and 2018, we examined seasonal and regional variabilities in metabolic status and the coupling of biological production and oceanic CO2 uptake, which provided a mechanistic view of the summer evolution of net community production and CO2 flux in the various stages of ice-melt and nutrient ...