Recent Climate Change Sink Due to 2 Saturation of the Southern Ocean CO

Comment on "Saturation of the southern ocean CO2 sink due to recent climate change".

Unlike Le Quéré et al. (Reports, 22 June 2007, p. 1735), we do not find a saturating Southern Ocean carbon sink due to recent climate change. In our ocean model, observed wind forcing causes reduced carbon uptake, but heat and freshwater flux forcing cause increased uptake. Our inversions of atmospheric carbon dioxide show that the Southern Ocean sink trend is dependent on network choice.

Response to Comments on “Saturation of the Southern Ocean CO2 Sink Due to Recent Climate Change”

We estimated a weakening of the Southern Ocean carbon dioxide (CO2) sink since 1981 relative to the trend expected from the large increase in atmospheric CO2. We agree with Law et al. that network choice increases the uncertainty of trend estimates but argue that their network of five locations is too small to be reliable. A future reversal of Southern Ocean CO2 saturation as suggested by Zickf...

Supporting Online Material for Saturation of the Southern Ocean CO2 Sink Due to Recent Climate Change

Monitoring and interpreting the ocean uptake of atmospheric CO2.

The oceans are an important sink for anthropogenically produced CO(2), and on time scales longer than a century they will be the main repository for the CO(2) that humans are emitting. Our knowledge of how ocean uptake varies (regionally and temporally) and the processes that control it is currently observation-limited. Traditionally, and based on sparse observations and models at coarse resolu...

Glacial CO2 sequestration

Introduction Conclusions References Tables Figures Back Close Full Screen / Esc Abstract Introduction Conclusions References Tables Figures Back Close Full Screen / Esc Abstract Given the magnitude and dynamism of the deep marine carbon reservoir, it is almost certain that past glacial – interglacial fluctuations in atmospheric CO 2 have relied at least in part on changes in the carbon storage ...