Roles of biological and physical processes in driving seasonal air–sea CO 2 flux in the Southern Ocean: New insights from CARIOCA pCO 2

• Published in: Journal of Marine Systems
• Main Authors: Merlivat, Liliane, Boutin, Jacqueline, Antoine, David
• Other Authors: Interactions et Processus au sein de la couche de Surface Océanique (IPSO), Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), 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)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-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)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-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)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche (LOV), Observatoire océanologique de Villefranche-sur-mer (OOVM), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), European Project: 30029,CARBOOCEAN, European Project: 264879,EC:FP7:ENV,FP7-ENV-2010,CARBOCHANGE(2011)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2015
• Subjects: Southern Ocean; Surface pCO 2 seasonality; Autonomous drifters; Productivity; Satellite chlorophyll; Air–Sea CO 2 exchange; Upper ocean and mixed layer processes; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-GEO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-01232526; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmarsys.2014.04.015

International audience On a mean annual basis, the Southern Ocean is a sink for atmospheric CO 2 . However the seasonality of the air–sea CO 2 flux in this region is poorly documented. We investigate processes regulating air–sea CO 2 flux in a large area of the Southern Ocean (38°S–55°S, 60°W–60°E) that represents nearly one third of the subantarctic zone. A seasonal budget of CO 2 partial pressure, pCO 2 and of dissolved inorganic carbon, DIC in the mixed layer is assessed by quantifying the impacts of biology, physics and thermodynamical effect on seawater pCO 2 . A focus is made on the quantification at a monthly scale of the biological consumption as it is the dominant process removing carbon from surface waters. In situ biological carbon production rates are estimated from high frequency estimates of DIC along the trajectories of CARIOCA drifters in the Atlantic and Indian sector of the Southern Ocean during four spring–summer seasons over the 2006–2009 period. Net community production (NCP) integrated over the mixed layer is derived from the daily change of DIC, and mixed layer depth estimated from Argo profiles. Eleven values of NCP are estimated and range from 30 to 130 mmol C m− 2 d− 1. They are used as a constraint for validating satellite net primary production (NPP). A satellite data-based global model is used to compute depth integrated net primary production, NPP, for the same periods along the trajectories of the buoys. Realistic NCP/NPP ratios are obtained under the condition that the SeaWiFS chlorophyll are corrected by a factor of ≈ 2–3, which is an underestimation previously reported for the Southern Ocean. Monthly satellite based NPP are computed over the 38°S–55°S, 60°W–60°E area. pCO 2 derived from these NPP combined with an export ratio, and taking into account the impact of physics and thermodynamics is in good agreement with the pCO 2 seasonal climatology of Takahashi (2009). On an annual timescale, mean NCP values, 4.4 to 4.9 mol C m− 2 yr− 1 are ≈ 4–5 times greater than air–sea CO 2 ...