Monitoring and interpreting the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2
The oceans are an important sink for anthropogenically produced CO 2, and on time scales longer than a century they will be the main repository for the CO2 that humans are emitting. Our knowledge of how ocean uptake varies (regionally and temporally) and the processes that control it is currently ob...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |
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ftuniveastangl:oai:ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk:34345 2023-05-15T17:34:31+02:00 Monitoring and interpreting the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2 Watson, Andrew W. Metzl, Nicolas Schuster, Ute 2011-05-28 https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/34345/ https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2011.0060 unknown Watson, Andrew W., Metzl, Nicolas and Schuster, Ute (2011) Monitoring and interpreting the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 369 (1943). pp. 1997-2008. ISSN 1364-503X doi:10.1098/rsta.2011.0060 Article PeerReviewed 2011 ftuniveastangl https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2011.0060 2023-01-30T21:31:21Z The oceans are an important sink for anthropogenically produced CO 2, and on time scales longer than a century they will be the main repository for the CO2 that humans are emitting. Our knowledge of how ocean uptake varies (regionally and temporally) and the processes that control it is currently observation-limited. Traditionally, and based on sparse observations and models at coarse resolution, ocean uptake has been thought to be relatively invariant. However, in the few places where we have enough observations to define the uptake over periods of many years or decades, it has been found to change substantially at basin scales, responding to indices of climate variability. We illustrate this for three well-studied regions: the equatorial Pacific, the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean, and the North Atlantic. A lesson to take from this is that ocean uptake is sensitive to climate (regionally, but presumably also globally). This reinforces the expectation that, as global climate changes in the future owing to human influences, ocean uptake of CO2 will respond. To evaluate and give early warning of such carbon-climate feedbacks, it is important to track trends in both ocean and land sinks for CO2. Recent coordinated observational programmes have shown that, by organization of an observing network, the atmosphere-ocean flux of CO2 can, in principle, be accurately tracked at seasonal or better resolution, over at least the Northern Hemisphere oceans. This would provide a valuable constraint on both the ocean and (by difference) land vegetation sinks for atmospheric CO2. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Southern Ocean University of East Anglia: UEA Digital Repository Indian Pacific Southern Ocean Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 369 1943 1997 2008 |
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University of East Anglia: UEA Digital Repository |
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description |
The oceans are an important sink for anthropogenically produced CO 2, and on time scales longer than a century they will be the main repository for the CO2 that humans are emitting. Our knowledge of how ocean uptake varies (regionally and temporally) and the processes that control it is currently observation-limited. Traditionally, and based on sparse observations and models at coarse resolution, ocean uptake has been thought to be relatively invariant. However, in the few places where we have enough observations to define the uptake over periods of many years or decades, it has been found to change substantially at basin scales, responding to indices of climate variability. We illustrate this for three well-studied regions: the equatorial Pacific, the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean, and the North Atlantic. A lesson to take from this is that ocean uptake is sensitive to climate (regionally, but presumably also globally). This reinforces the expectation that, as global climate changes in the future owing to human influences, ocean uptake of CO2 will respond. To evaluate and give early warning of such carbon-climate feedbacks, it is important to track trends in both ocean and land sinks for CO2. Recent coordinated observational programmes have shown that, by organization of an observing network, the atmosphere-ocean flux of CO2 can, in principle, be accurately tracked at seasonal or better resolution, over at least the Northern Hemisphere oceans. This would provide a valuable constraint on both the ocean and (by difference) land vegetation sinks for atmospheric CO2. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Watson, Andrew W. Metzl, Nicolas Schuster, Ute |
spellingShingle |
Watson, Andrew W. Metzl, Nicolas Schuster, Ute Monitoring and interpreting the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2 |
author_facet |
Watson, Andrew W. Metzl, Nicolas Schuster, Ute |
author_sort |
Watson, Andrew W. |
title |
Monitoring and interpreting the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2 |
title_short |
Monitoring and interpreting the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2 |
title_full |
Monitoring and interpreting the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2 |
title_fullStr |
Monitoring and interpreting the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Monitoring and interpreting the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2 |
title_sort |
monitoring and interpreting the ocean uptake of atmospheric co2 |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/34345/ https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2011.0060 |
geographic |
Indian Pacific Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Indian Pacific Southern Ocean |
genre |
North Atlantic Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
Watson, Andrew W., Metzl, Nicolas and Schuster, Ute (2011) Monitoring and interpreting the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 369 (1943). pp. 1997-2008. ISSN 1364-503X doi:10.1098/rsta.2011.0060 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2011.0060 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |
container_volume |
369 |
container_issue |
1943 |
container_start_page |
1997 |
op_container_end_page |
2008 |
_version_ |
1766133384933801984 |