Propagation of climatic events on ocean stratification, marine biology, and CO2: Case studies over the 1979–1999 period

Le Quéré, Corinne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2319-0452, Aumont, Olivier, Monfray, Patrick and Orr, James (2003) Propagation of climatic events on ocean stratification, marine biology, and CO2: Case studies over the 1979–1999 period. Journal of Geophysical Research, 108 (C12). ISSN 0148-0227

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

We investigate the propagation of climatic events on ocean stratification, marine biology, and CO2 using a large-scale ocean general circulation model coupled to a simple biogeochemical model of plankton dynamics and the carbon cycle. The model was forced with satellite and reanalysis fields during 1979-1999. We focus on three climatic events: (1) the North Atlantic Oscillation, (2) El Niño events, and (3) the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave. Such climatic events caused variability in ocean stratification, approximated by the mixing depth (MD), from ±20 m in the subtropics to ±100 s of meters at high latitudes. In the subtropics, deepening of the MD resupplied nutrient-impoverished surface waters and increased marine biomass by 20-100%. In contrast, at high latitudes, shoaling of the MD lengthened the growing season (i.e., the length of time that light is available for plankton growth) and increased marine biomass by 10-20%. Variability in marine biology reached global peak-to-peak values of ±0.01 mg m-3 for surface chl a, ±3.4 Pg C yr-1 for primary production, and ±0.3 Pg C yr-1 for export production and its contribution to CO2 fluxes. Our model results suggest that changes in ocean stratification driven by short-term climatic events could be used to understand and quantify the feedbacks from marine biology to CO2 and climate.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 13 - climate action,sdg 14 - life below water ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
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 06:58
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2023 00:52
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/32681
DOI:	10.1029/2001JC000920

Actions (login required)

View Item