Can Oxygen Utilization Rate Be Used to Track the Long‐Term Changes of Aerobic Respiration in the Mesopelagic Atlantic Ocean?

Abstract Quantifying changes in oceanic aerobic respiration is essential for understanding marine deoxygenation. Here we use an Earth system model to investigate if and to what extent oxygen utilization rate (OUR) can be used to track the temporal change of true respiration (Rtrue). Rtrue results fr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Haichao Guo, Iris Kriest, Andreas Oschlies, Wolfgang Koeve
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2023
Subjects:
mesopelagic respiration
oxygen utilization rate
Earth system model
ocean deoxygenation
Geophysics. Cosmic physics
QC801-809
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL102645
https://doaj.org/article/2133dd0dec0b4da7a6749b354037bcc7
Description
Summary:Abstract Quantifying changes in oceanic aerobic respiration is essential for understanding marine deoxygenation. Here we use an Earth system model to investigate if and to what extent oxygen utilization rate (OUR) can be used to track the temporal change of true respiration (Rtrue). Rtrue results from the degradation of particulate and dissolved organic matter in the model ocean, acting as ground truth to evaluate the accuracy of OUR. Results show that in thermocline and intermediate waters of the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre (200–1,000 m), vertically integrated OUR and Rtrue both decrease by 0.2 molO2/m2/yr from 1850 to 2100 under global warming. However, in the mesopelagic Tropical South Atlantic, integrated OUR increases by 0.2 molO2/m2/yr, while the Rtrue integral decreases by 0.3 molO2/m2/yr. A possible reason for the diverging OUR and Rtrue is ocean mixing, which affects water mass composition and maps remote respiration changes to the study region.

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