Climatological mean and decadal change in surface ocean pCO2, and net sea–air CO2 flux over the global oceans

• Published in: Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography
• Main Authors: Takahashi, Taro, Sutherland, Stewart C., Wanninkhof, Rik, Sweeney, Colm, Feely, Richard A., Chipman, David W., Hales, Burke, Friederich, Gernot, Chavez, Francisco, Sabine, Christopher, Watson, Andrew, Bakker, Dorothee C.E., Schuster, Ute, Metzl, Nicolas, Yoshikawa-Inoue, Hisayuki, Ishii, Masao, Midorikawa, Takashi, Nojiri, Yukihiro, Körtzinger, Arne, Steinhoff, Tobias, Hoppema, Mario, Olafsson, Jon, Arnarson, Thorarinn S., Tilbrook, Bronte, Johannessen, Truls, Olsen, Are, Bellerby, Richard, Wong, C.S., Delille, Bruno, Bates, N.R., Baar, Hein J.W. de
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Global ocean; Sea–air flux; Surface ocean; Carbon dioxide; Partial pressure; North Atlantic; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/11370/e75b5184-d8c4-4a8a-8131-4d247237c14f; https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/e75b5184-d8c4-4a8a-8131-4d247237c14f; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2008.12.009

A climatological mean distribution for the surface water pCO2 over the global oceans in non-El Niño conditions has been constructed with spatial resolution of 4° (latitude) ×5° (longitude) for a reference year 2000 based upon about 3 million measurements of surface water pCO2 obtained from 1970 to 2007. The database used for this study is about 3 times larger than the 0.94 million used earlier. A time-trend analysis using deseasonalized surface water pCO2 data in portions of the North Atlantic, North and South Pacific and Southern Oceans (which cover about 27% of the global ocean areas) indicates that the surface water pCO2 over these oceanic areas has increased on average at a mean rate of 1.5 μatm y−1 with basin-specific rates varying between 1.2±0.5 and 2.1±0.4 μatm y−1. A global ocean database for a single reference year 2000 is assembled using this mean rate for correcting observations made in different years to the reference year. The observations made during El Niño periods in the equatorial Pacific and those made in coastal zones are excluded from the database. Seasonal changes in the surface water pCO2 and the sea-air pCO2 difference over four climatic zones in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Southern Oceans are presented. Over the Southern Ocean seasonal ice zone, the seasonality is complex. Although it cannot be thoroughly documented due to the limited extent of observations, seasonal changes in pCO2 are approximated by using the data for under-ice waters during austral winter and those for the marginal ice and ice-free zones. The net air–sea CO2 flux is estimated using the sea–air pCO2 difference and the air–sea gas transfer rate that is parameterized as a function of (wind speed)^2 with a scaling factor of 0.26. This is estimated by inverting the bomb 14C data using Ocean General Circulation models and the 1979–2005 NCEP-DOE AMIP-II Reanalysis (R-2) wind speed data. The equatorial Pacific (14°N–14°S) is the major source for atmospheric CO2, emitting about +0.48 Pg-C y−1, and the temperate oceans ...