The carbon budget of the North Sea

A carbon budget has been established for the North Sea, a shelf sea on the NW European continental shelf. The carbon exchange fluxes with the North Atlantic Ocean dominate the gross carbon budget. The net carbon budget – more relevant to the issue of the contribution of the coastal ocean to the mari...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biogeosciences
Main Authors: Thomas, H., Bozec, Y., Baar, H.J.W. de, Elkalay, K., Frankignoulle, M., Schiettecatte, L.-S., Kattner, G., Borges, A.V.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2005
Subjects:
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11370/70bcbc9c-e90d-4a5e-a781-9d417febc406
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/70bcbc9c-e90d-4a5e-a781-9d417febc406
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2-87-2005
https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/9856029/2005BiogeosciThomas1.pdf
Description
Summary:A carbon budget has been established for the North Sea, a shelf sea on the NW European continental shelf. The carbon exchange fluxes with the North Atlantic Ocean dominate the gross carbon budget. The net carbon budget – more relevant to the issue of the contribution of the coastal ocean to the marine carbon cycle – is dominated by the carbon inputs from rivers, the Baltic Sea and the atmosphere. The North Sea acts as a sink for organic carbon and thus can be characterised as a heterotrophic system. The dominant carbon sink is the final export to the North Atlantic Ocean. More than 90% of the CO2 taken up from the atmosphere is exported to the North Atlantic Ocean making the North Sea a highly efficient continental shelf pump for carbon.

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