Direct observational evidence of strong CO2 uptake in the Southern Ocean

Dong, Yuanxu ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1468-1623, Bakker, Dorothee C. E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9234-5337, Bell, Thomas G., Yang, Mingxi, Landschützer, Peter, Hauck, Judith, Rödenbeck, Christian, Kitidis, Vassilis, Bushinsky, Seth M. and Liss, Peter S. (2024) Direct observational evidence of strong CO2 uptake in the Southern Ocean. Science Advances, 10 (30). ISSN 2375-2548

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Abstract

The Southern Ocean is the primary region for the uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) and is, therefore, crucial for Earth’s climate. However, the Southern Ocean CO2 flux estimates reveal substantial uncertainties and lack direct validation. Using seven independent and directly measured air-sea CO2 flux datasets, we identify a 25% stronger CO2 uptake in the Southern Ocean than shipboard dataset–based flux estimates. Accounting for upper ocean temperature gradients and insufficient temporal resolution of flux products can bridge this flux gap. The gas transfer velocity parameterization is not the main reason for the flux disagreement. The profiling float data–based flux products and biogeochemistry models considerably underestimate the observed CO2 uptake, which may be due to the lack of representation of small-scale high-flux events. Our study suggests that the Southern Ocean may take up more CO2 than previously recognized, and that temperature corrections should be considered, and a higher resolution is needed in data-based bulk flux estimates.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. The MPI-SOMFFN product and the cruise data including the EC flux observations and subsampled flux products: http://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.b2rbnzspm. The CarboScope product: https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/CarboScope/?ID=oc_v2021 (SOCAT-based product); https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/CarboScope/?ID=oc_SOCCOM_v2021 (SOCAT plus SOCCOM–based product); https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/CarboScope/?ID=oc_SOCCOMonly_v2022 (SOCCOM-weighted product). The SOCAT fCO2 measurements v2021: https://socat.info/index.php/version-2021/. The derived SOCCOM fCO2 data (2015–2020): http://doi.org/10.6075/J0BK19W5. Funding information: Funding: Y.D. has been supported by the China Scholarship Council (CSC/201906330072). The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has enabled D.C.E.B.’s work (PICCOLO, NE/P021395/1, and CUSTARD, NE/P021263/1 projects). The contributions of T.G.B. and M.Y. have been made possible by support from NERC (ORCHESTRA, NE/N018095/1, and PICCOLO NE/P021409/1 projects) and the European Space Agency AMT4oceanSatFluxCCN (4000125730/18/NL/FF/gp). Funding to J.H. was provided by the Initiative and Networking Fund of the Helmholtz Association [Helmholtz Young Investigator Group Marine Carbon and Ecosystem Feedbacks in the Earth System (MarESys), grant VH-NG-1301], by the ERC-2022-STG OceanPeak (grant 101077209), and by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under grant 101083922 (OceanICU Improving Carbon Understanding). The work reflects only the authors’ view; the European Commission and their executive agency are not responsible for any use that may be made.
Uncontrolled Keywords: sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 18 Oct 2024 10:30
Last Modified: 24 Oct 2024 16:30
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/97065
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn5781

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