Satellite Evidence that E. huxleyi Phytoplankton Blooms Weaken Marine Carbon Sinks

Phytoplankton blooms of the coccolithophore Emiliania huxleyi are known to produce CO 2 , causing less uptake of atmospheric CO 2 by the ocean, but a global assessment of this phenomenon has so far not been quantified. Therefore, here we quantify the increase in CO 2 partial pressure (Δ p CO 2 ) at the ocean surface within E. huxleyi blooms for polar and subpolar seas using an 18 year ocean color time series (1998–2015). When normalized to p CO 2 in the absence of bloom, the mean and maximum Δ p CO 2 values within the bloom areas varied between 21.0%–43.3% and 31.6%–62.5%, respectively. These results might have appreciable implications for climatology, marine chemistry, and ecology.