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Decadal f CO 2 trends in global ocean margins and adjacent boundary current‐influenced areas
Author(s) -
Wang Hongjie,
Hu Xinping,
Cai WeiJun,
SterbaBoatwright Blair
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl074724
Subject(s) - upwelling , environmental science , boundary current , northern hemisphere , forcing (mathematics) , climatology , southern hemisphere , current (fluid) , atmosphere (unit) , atmospheric sciences , fugacity , orbital forcing , flux (metallurgy) , oceanography , ocean current , climate change , geology , meteorology , geography , physics , thermodynamics , materials science , metallurgy
Determination of the rate of change of sea surface CO 2 fugacity (f CO 2 ) is important, as the f CO 2 gradient between the atmosphere and the ocean determines the direction of CO 2 flux and hence the fate of this greenhouse gas. Using a newly available, community‐based global CO 2 database (Surface Ocean CO 2 Atlas Version 3 coastal data set) and a newly developed statistical method, we report that the global ocean margins (within 400 km offshore, 30°S–70°N) f CO 2 temporal trends on decadal time scales (1.93 ± 1.59 μatm yr −1 ) closely follow the atmospheric f CO 2 increase rate (1.90 ± 0.06 μatm yr −1 ) in the Northern Hemisphere but are lower (1.35 ± 0.55 μatm yr −1 ) in the Southern Hemisphere, reflecting dominant atmospheric forcing in conjunction with different warming rates in the two hemispheres. In addition to the atmospheric f CO 2 forcing, a direct warming effect contributes more to f CO 2 increase in the western boundary current‐influenced areas, while intensified upwelling contributes more to f CO 2 increase in eastern boundary current‐influenced areas.