Interannual variability of equatorial Pacific CO2 fluxes estimated from temperature and salinity data

Loukos, H, Vivier, F, Murphy, PP, Harrison, DE and Le Quere, C ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2319-0452 (2000) Interannual variability of equatorial Pacific CO2 fluxes estimated from temperature and salinity data. Geophysical Research Letters, 27 (12). p. 1735. ISSN 0094-8276

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Abstract

Based on atmospheric data and models, the tropical CO2 source anomaly reaches up to 2 GtC yr-1, but the respective contributions of the terrestrial biosphere and the oceans to this flux are difficult to quantify. Here we present a new method for estimating CO2 fluxes from oceanic observations based on the surprisingly good predictive skill of temperature and salinity for surface dissolved inorganic carbon. Using historical temperature and salinity data, we reconstruct the basin scale CO2 flux to the atmosphere in the equatorial Pacific from 1982 to 1993. We find that interannual anomalies do not exceed 0.4 ± 0.2 GtC yr-1 which suggests that up to 80% of the tropical CO2 source anomaly is due to the terrestrial biosphere.

Item Type: Article
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups: University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Depositing User: Rosie Cullington
Date Deposited: 16 Jun 2011 07:39
Last Modified: 16 Jun 2023 23:51
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/32690
DOI: 10.1029/1999GL011013

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