Open AccessMEASUREMENTS OF PAST 14C LEVELS AND 13C/12C RATIOS IN THE SURFACE WATERS OF THE WORLD'S SUBPOLAR OCEANS.
Author(s) -
Thomas A. Brown
Publication year - 2010
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/1009647
Subject(s) - carbon cycle , environmental science , oceanography , series (stratigraphy) , deep sea , ocean current , surface water , atmosphere (unit) , carbon fibers , geology , climatology , meteorology , geography , paleontology , ecology , biology , computer science , ecosystem , environmental engineering , algorithm , composite number
Under this project we have developed methods that allow the reconstruction of past {sup 14}C levels of the surface waters of the subpolar North Pacific Ocean by measuring the {sup 14}C contents of archived salmon scales. The overall goal of this research was to reduce of the uncertainty in the uptake of fossil CO{sub 2} by the oceans and thereby improve the quantification of the global carbon cycle and to elucidate the fate of anthropogenic CO{sub 2}. Ocean General Circulation Models (OGCMs), with their three dimensional global spatial coverage and temporal modeling capabilities, provide the best route to accurately calculating the total uptake of CO{sub 2} by the oceans and, hence, to achieving the desired reduction in uncertainty. {sup 14}C has played, and continues to play, a central role in the validation of the OGCMs calculations, particularly with respect to those model components which govern the uptake of CO{sub 2} from the atmosphere and the transport of this carbon within the oceans. Under this project, we have developed time-series records of the {sup 14}C levels of the surface waters of three areas of the subpolar North Pacific Ocean. As the previously available data on the time-history of oceanic surface water {sup 14}C levels are very limited, these time-series records provide significant new {sup 14}C data to constrain and validate the OGCMs