Dissolved organic radiocarbon in the central Pacific Ocean

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Druffel, Ellen R. M., Griffin, Sheila, Wang, Ning, Garcia, Noreen G., McNichol, Ann P., Key, Robert M., Walker, Brett D.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2019
• Subjects: Dissolved organic carbon; Radiocarbon; Pacific Ocean; Dissolved inorganic carbon; Deep ocean circulation; AABW; Antarctic; Canada; Kavli; Pacific; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1912/24353

© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Druffel, E. R. M., Griffin, S., Wang, N., Garcia, N. G., McNichol, A. P., Key, R. M., & Walker, B. D. Dissolved organic radiocarbon in the central Pacific Ocean. Geophysical Research Letters, 46(10), (2019):5396-5403, doi:10.1029/2019GL083149. We report marine dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations, and DOC ∆14C and δ13C values in seawater collected from the central Pacific. Surface ∆14C values are low in equatorial and polar regions where upwelling occurs and high in subtropical regions dominated by downwelling. A core feature of these data is that 14C aging of DOC (682 ± 86 14C years) and dissolved inorganic carbon (643 ± 40 14C years) in Antarctic Bottom Water between 54.0°S and 53.5°N are similar. These estimates of aging are minimum values due to mixing with deep waters. We also observe minimum ∆14C values (−550‰ to −570‰) between the depths of 2,000 and 3,500 m in the North Pacific, though the source of the low values cannot be determined at this time. We thank Jennifer Walker, Xiaomei Xu, and Dachun Zhang for their help with the stable carbon isotope measurements; John Southon and staff of the Keck Carbon Cycle AMS Laboratory for their assistance and advice; the support of chief scientists Samantha Siedlecki, Molly Baringer, Alison Macdonald, and Sabine Mecking; the guidance of Jim Swift and Dennis Hansell for shared ship time; and Sarah Bercovici for collecting water on the GoA cruise. We appreciate the comments of Christian Lewis and Niels Hauksson on this manuscript. This work was supported by NSF (OCE‐141458941 to E. R. M. D. and OCE‐0824864, OCE‐1558654, and Cooperative Agreement OCE1239667 to R. M. K. and A. P. M.), the Fred Kavli Foundation, the Keck Carbon Cycle AMS Laboratory, and the NSF/NOAA‐funded GO‐SHIP Program. This research was undertaken, in part, thanks to funding from the Canada Research Chairs program (to B. D. W.) and an ...