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The reinvigoration of the Southern Ocean carbon sink

Peter Landschützer, Nicolas Gruber, F. Alexander Haumann, Christian Rödenbeck, Dorothee C. E. Bakker, Steven van Heuven, Mario Hoppema, Nicolas Metzl, Colm Sweeney, Taro Takahashi, Bronte Tilbrook, and Rik Wanninkhof
Science • 11 Sep 2015 • Vol 349, Issue 6253 • pp. 1221-1224 • DOI: 10.1126/science.aab2620
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Uptake uptick

Has global warming slowed the uptake of atmospheric CO2 by the Southern Ocean? Landschützer et al. say no (see the Perspective by Fletcher). Previous work suggested that the strength of the Southern Ocean carbon sink fell during the 1990s. This raised concerns that such a decline would exacerbate the rise of atmospheric CO2 and thereby increase global surface air temperatures and ocean acidity. The newer data show that the Southern Ocean carbon sink strengthened again over the past decade, which illustrates the dynamic nature of the process and alleviates some of the anxiety about its earlier weakening trend.
Science, this issue p. 1221; see also p. 1165

Abstract

Several studies have suggested that the carbon sink in the Southern Ocean—the ocean’s strongest region for the uptake of anthropogenic CO2 —has weakened in recent decades. We demonstrated, on the basis of multidecadal analyses of surface ocean CO2 observations, that this weakening trend stopped around 2002, and by 2012, the Southern Ocean had regained its expected strength based on the growth of atmospheric CO2. All three Southern Ocean sectors have contributed to this reinvigoration of the carbon sink, yet differences in the processes between sectors exist, related to a tendency toward a zonally more asymmetric atmospheric circulation. The large decadal variations in the Southern Ocean carbon sink suggest a rather dynamic ocean carbon cycle that varies more in time than previously recognized.
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Supplementary Material

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Supplementary Text
Figs. S1 to S12
Tables S1 and S2
References

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Information & Authors

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Published In

Science
Volume 349 | Issue 6253
11 September 2015

Copyright

Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Submission history

Received: 1 April 2015
Accepted: 30 July 2015
Published in print: 11 September 2015

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by European Union (EU) grant 264879 (CARBOCHANGE) (P.L., N.G., D.C.E.B., M.H., S.v.H., and N.M.) and EU grant 283080 (GEO-CARBON) (P.L. and N.G.), both of which received funding from the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme. F.A.H. was supportetd by ETH research grant CH2-01 11-1. T.T., R.W., and C.S. acknowledge funding for the pCO2 from ship projects from the Climate Observation Division of NOAA. T.T. and the Ship of Opportunity Observation Program were supported by a grant (NA10OAR4320143) from NOAA. C.S.’s contribution to this research was made possible by support from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs (grants AOAS 0944761 and AOAS 0636975). B.T. was funded through the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC, the Australian Climate Change Science Program, and the Integrated Marine Observing System. N.M. is grateful for support from the Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers/Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Institut Polaire Française for the Océan Indien Service d’Observation cruises.. C.R. thanks the providers of atmospheric CO2 measurements and the Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum computing center for their support. SOCAT is an international effort, supported by the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project, the Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study, and the Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research program, to deliver a uniformly quality-controlled surface ocean CO2 database. The many researchers and funding agencies responsible for the collection of data and quality control are thanked for their contributions to SOCAT. We also thank A. Hogg for fruitful discussions. The surface ocean CO2 observations are available from the SOCAT website (www.socat.info). The sea surface pCO2 and air-sea CO2 flux data leading conclusions of this manuscript are available to the public via the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (http://cdiac.ornl.gov/oceans/SPCO2_1982_2011_ETH_SOM_FFN.html). The mixed-layer scheme and inversion data supporting the main findings can be obtained from www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/~christian.roedenbeck/download-CO2-ocean/ and www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/~christian.roedenbeck/download-CO2/. P.L. and N.G. designed the study and wrote the paper together with F.A.H. P.L. developed the neural network estimation and performed the majority of the analyses, assisted by F.A.H. C.R. developed the mixed-layer scheme and the atmospheric inversion. S.v.H., M.H., N.M., C.S., T.T., B.T., and R.W. were responsible for the collection of the majority of the surface ocean CO2 data in the Southern Ocean. D.C.E.B. led the SOCAT synthesis effort that underlies this work. All authors discussed the results and implications and commented on the manuscript at all stages.

Authors

Affiliations

Peter Landschützer*
Environmental Physics, Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
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Nicolas Gruber
Environmental Physics, Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
Center for Climate Systems Modeling, C2SM, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
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F. Alexander Haumann
Environmental Physics, Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
Center for Climate Systems Modeling, C2SM, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
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Christian Rödenbeck
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany.
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Dorothee C. E. Bakker
Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
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Steven van Heuven
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany.
Present address: Department of Marine Geology and Chemical Oceanography, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), Texel, Netherlands.
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Mario Hoppema
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany.
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Nicolas Metzl
Sorbonne Universités (UPMC, Univ Paris 06)-CNRS-IRD-MNHN, LOCEAN/IPSL Laboratory, 4 place Jussieu, F-75005 Paris, France.
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Colm Sweeney
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO, USA.
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Taro Takahashi
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA.
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Bronte Tilbrook
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-operative Research Centre, Hobart, Australia.
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Rik Wanninkhof
Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory of NOAA, Miami, FL, USA.
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Notes

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

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