Multidecadal changes in biology influence the variability of the North Atlantic carbon sink
The North Atlantic Ocean is the most intense marine sink for anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO _2 ) in the world’s oceans, showing high variability and substantial changes over recent decades. However, the contribution of biology to the variability and trend of this sink is poorly understood. Here we...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:5e159738cd7c458a92c264384c9839c3 2023-09-05T13:21:16+02:00 Multidecadal changes in biology influence the variability of the North Atlantic carbon sink Clare Ostle Peter Landschützer Martin Edwards Martin Johnson Sunke Schmidtko Ute Schuster Andrew J Watson Carol Robinson 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac9ecf https://doaj.org/article/5e159738cd7c458a92c264384c9839c3 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac9ecf https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac9ecf 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/5e159738cd7c458a92c264384c9839c3 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 17, Iss 11, p 114056 (2022) multidecadal biology influence variability North Atlantic carbon sink Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac9ecf 2023-08-13T00:36:51Z The North Atlantic Ocean is the most intense marine sink for anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO _2 ) in the world’s oceans, showing high variability and substantial changes over recent decades. However, the contribution of biology to the variability and trend of this sink is poorly understood. Here we use in situ plankton measurements, alongside observation-based sea surface CO _2 data from 1982 to 2020, to investigate the biological influence on the CO _2 sink. Our results demonstrate that long term variability in the CO _2 sink in the North Atlantic is associated with changes in phytoplankton abundance and community structure. These data show that within the subpolar regions of the North Atlantic, phytoplankton biomass is increasing, while a decrease is observed in the subtropics, which supports model predictions of climate-driven changes in productivity. These biomass trends are synchronous with increasing temperature, changes in mixing and an increasing uptake of atmospheric CO _2 in the subpolar North Atlantic. Our results highlight that phytoplankton play a significant role in the variability as well as the trends of the CO _2 uptake from the atmosphere over recent decades. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Environmental Research Letters 17 11 114056 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
multidecadal biology influence variability North Atlantic carbon sink Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
multidecadal biology influence variability North Atlantic carbon sink Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Clare Ostle Peter Landschützer Martin Edwards Martin Johnson Sunke Schmidtko Ute Schuster Andrew J Watson Carol Robinson Multidecadal changes in biology influence the variability of the North Atlantic carbon sink |
topic_facet |
multidecadal biology influence variability North Atlantic carbon sink Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
The North Atlantic Ocean is the most intense marine sink for anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO _2 ) in the world’s oceans, showing high variability and substantial changes over recent decades. However, the contribution of biology to the variability and trend of this sink is poorly understood. Here we use in situ plankton measurements, alongside observation-based sea surface CO _2 data from 1982 to 2020, to investigate the biological influence on the CO _2 sink. Our results demonstrate that long term variability in the CO _2 sink in the North Atlantic is associated with changes in phytoplankton abundance and community structure. These data show that within the subpolar regions of the North Atlantic, phytoplankton biomass is increasing, while a decrease is observed in the subtropics, which supports model predictions of climate-driven changes in productivity. These biomass trends are synchronous with increasing temperature, changes in mixing and an increasing uptake of atmospheric CO _2 in the subpolar North Atlantic. Our results highlight that phytoplankton play a significant role in the variability as well as the trends of the CO _2 uptake from the atmosphere over recent decades. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Clare Ostle Peter Landschützer Martin Edwards Martin Johnson Sunke Schmidtko Ute Schuster Andrew J Watson Carol Robinson |
author_facet |
Clare Ostle Peter Landschützer Martin Edwards Martin Johnson Sunke Schmidtko Ute Schuster Andrew J Watson Carol Robinson |
author_sort |
Clare Ostle |
title |
Multidecadal changes in biology influence the variability of the North Atlantic carbon sink |
title_short |
Multidecadal changes in biology influence the variability of the North Atlantic carbon sink |
title_full |
Multidecadal changes in biology influence the variability of the North Atlantic carbon sink |
title_fullStr |
Multidecadal changes in biology influence the variability of the North Atlantic carbon sink |
title_full_unstemmed |
Multidecadal changes in biology influence the variability of the North Atlantic carbon sink |
title_sort |
multidecadal changes in biology influence the variability of the north atlantic carbon sink |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac9ecf https://doaj.org/article/5e159738cd7c458a92c264384c9839c3 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 17, Iss 11, p 114056 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac9ecf https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac9ecf 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/5e159738cd7c458a92c264384c9839c3 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac9ecf |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
114056 |
_version_ |
1776201867227824128 |