Advective Controls on the North Atlantic Anthropogenic Carbon Sink

Interannual variability in the North Atlantic Ocean carbon sink.

The North Atlantic is believed to represent the largest ocean sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide in the Northern Hemisphere, yet little is known about its temporal variability. We report an 18-year time series of upper-ocean inorganic carbon observations from the northwestern subtropical North Atlantic near Bermuda that indicates substantial variability in this sink. We deduce that the carbon ...

Trends in the North Atlantic carbon sink: 1992–2006

[1] A biogeochemical general circulation model is used to assess the impact of climate variability from 1992 to 2006 on air-sea CO2 fluxes and ocean surface pCO2 in the North Atlantic and to understand trends in the North Atlantic carbon sink over this time period. The model indicates that the North Atlantic carbon sink increased from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. Consistent with observations...

Natural Variability and Anthropogenic Trends in the Ocean Carbon Sink.

Since preindustrial times, the ocean has removed from the atmosphere 41% of the carbon emitted by human industrial activities. Despite significant uncertainties, the balance of evidence indicates that the globally integrated rate of ocean carbon uptake is increasing in response to increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation in the equatorial Pacific dominates int...

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the South Atlantic western 1 basin

Anthropogenic CO2 accumulation rates in the North Atlantic Ocean from changes in the C/C of dissolved inorganic carbon

[1] The anthropogenic CO2 accumulation rate for the North Atlantic Ocean was estimated on the basis of the decrease in the dC of the dissolved inorganic carbon measured between cruises in 1981 (Transient Tracers in the North Atlantic), 1993 (OACES) and 2003 (Repeat Hydrography). A mean depth-integrated dC change of 15.0 ± 3.8% m yr 1 was estimated by applying a multiple linear regression approa...