Tracking the variable North Atlantic sink for atmospheric CO2.
The oceans are a major sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). Historically, observations have been too sparse to allow accurate tracking of changes in rates of CO2 uptake over ocean basins, so little is known about how these vary. Here, we show observations indicating substantial variability in the CO2 uptake by the North Atlantic on time scales of a few years. Further, we use measurements from a coordinated network of instrumented commercial ships to define the annual flux into the North Atlantic, for the year 2005, to a precision of about 10%. This approach offers the prospect of accurately monitoring the changing ocean CO2 sink for those ocean basins that are well covered by shipping routes.
Watson
Andrew J
AJ
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. a.watson@uea.ac.uk
Schuster
Ute
U
Bakker
Dorothee C E
DC
Bates
Nicholas R
NR
Corbière
Antoine
A
González-Dávila
Melchor
M
Friedrich
Tobias
T
Hauck
Judith
J
Heinze
Christoph
C
Johannessen
Truls
T
Körtzinger
Arne
A
Metzl
Nicolas
N
Olafsson
Jon
J
Olsen
Are
A
Oschlies
Andreas
A
Padin
X Antonio
XA
Pfeil
Benjamin
B
Santana-Casiano
J Magdalena
JM
Steinhoff
Tobias
T
Telszewski
Maciej
M
Rios
Aida F
AF
Wallace
Douglas W R
DW
Wanninkhof
Rik
R