An increasing CO2 sink in the Arctic Ocean due to sea-ice loss

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Bates, Nicholas R., Moran, S. Bradley, Hansell, Dennis A., Mathis, Jeremy T.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2006
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Canada; canada basin; Chukchi; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/357438/

The Arctic Ocean and adjacent continental shelf seas such as the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas are particularly sensitive to long-term change and low-frequency modes of atmosphere-ocean-sea-ice forcing. The cold, low salinity surface waters of the Canada Basin of the Arctic Ocean are undersaturated with respect to CO 2 in the atmosphere and the region has the potential to take up atmospheric CO 2 , although presently suppressed by sea-ice cover. Undersaturated seawater CO 2 conditions of the Arctic Ocean are maintained by export of water with low dissolved inorganic carbon content and modified by intense seasonal shelf primary production. Sea-ice extent and volume in the Arctic Ocean has decreased over the last few decades, and we estimate that the Arctic Ocean sink for CO 2 has tripled over the last 3 decades (24 Tg yr -1 to 66 Tg yr -1 ) due to sea-ice retreat with future sea-ice melting enhancing air-to-sea CO 2 flux by ~28% per decade.