New in situ estimates of carbon biological production rates in the Southern Ocean from CARIOCA drifter measurements

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Boutin, Jacqueline, Merlivat, Liliane
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X), Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: CCSD 2009
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.GP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-GEO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; Southern Ocean; Indian; South Georgia Island
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00760016; https://hal.science/hal-00760016v1/document; https://hal.science/hal-00760016v1/file/2009GL038307.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL038307

International audience A CARbon Interface OCean Atmosphere (CARIOCA) surface buoy drifted from 2006 to 2007 in the polar regions of the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Derived values of the surface dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) displayed conspicuous daily variations with a close to sunrise maximum and a close to sunset minimum. This decrease of carbon is a measurement of the Net Community Production (NCP) during daytime at 2 meters depth. NCP integrated over the mixed layer is computed from the daily change of the maxima of DIC. When combined with mixed layer depths estimated from Argo floats, we find that north of South Georgia Island, NCP ranges from 82 to 118 mmol m -2 d -1 in the fall and from 30 to 51 mmol m -2 d -1 close to 17°W in late spring. This study highlights the possibility of estimating biological carbon production rates by an in situ non-intrusive method from unattended platforms.