| Autor: |
Emerson, Steven, Yang, Bo |
| Předmět: |
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| Zdroj: |
Geophysical Research Letters; 11/16/2022, Vol. 49 Issue 21, p1-9, 9p |
| Abstrakt: |
The magnitude and distribution of the ocean's biological pump (the downward flux of organic carbon (OC) from the ocean surface) influences the pCO2 of the atmosphere and the O2 content of the deep sea, but has not been well quantified. We determine this flux in the ocean's five subtropical gyres using upper‐ocean oxygen mass balance and measurements of T, S, and pO2 by autonomous profiling floats. Our results suggest that the biological OC pump is not globally uniform among the subtropical gyres: values in the North Pacific and Atlantic indicate distinct autotrophy (1–2 mol C m−2 yr−1) while near zero values in the S. Indian Ocean suggest the possibility of net heterotrophy. There is a correlation between the surface water iron/nitrate ratio and the magnitude of the biological pump suggesting an important role for nitrogen fixation in controlling the global distribution. Plain Language Summary: The ocean's biological pump is the most important natural flux controlling ocean and atmosphere carbon concentrations on decadal to millennial time scales, with a value that is fortuitously about the same as the present anthropogenic flux of carbon to the atmosphere. Understanding this flux is key to determining the marine carbon cycle feedback to global warming, but presently even the sign of this flux is debated in some subtropical ocean regions. This paper demonstrates how it is possible to determine the global value of the biological pump by remote measurements on autonomous profiling floats. Our findings suggest that the ocean's biological pump is very different in the subtropical northern and southern hemispheres probably because of the geographic variability of the flux of iron to the surface ocean. Key Points: The geographic distribution of the downward flux of biological organic carbon from the upper ocean (the ocean's biological pump) is uncertain and difficult to determine from observationsT, S, and pO2 measurements from 21 profiling floats in the world's subtropical oceans are interpreted in terms of the net biological oxygen production in the upper oceanThe measured net biological oxygen flux is higher in the northern hemisphere subtropics than in the southern subtropics and correlated with surface‐water iron concentration [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Databáze: |
Complementary Index |
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