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The effects of buffer and temperature feedback on the oceanic uptake of CO 2
Author(s) -
Yi Chuixiang,
Gong Peng,
Xu Ming,
Qi Ye
Publication year - 2001
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 - 10.1029/2000gl011569
Subject(s) - atmosphere (unit) , carbonate , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , carbon cycle , climate change , carbon fibers , positive feedback , global change , climatology , chemistry , meteorology , oceanography , materials science , physics , geology , ecosystem , ecology , organic chemistry , engineering , composite number , electrical engineering , composite material , biology
The feedback between climate and carbon cycle systems is critical to the prediction of future CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere and the capacity of the oceans to take up CO 2 from the atmosphere. We calculated the magnitudes of the potential feedback between the increase of atmospheric CO 2 concentration, the carbonate chemistry of the oceans (via a buffer factor), and the global temperature. We find that the magnitude of the buffer feedback depends strongly on the level of the dissolved inorganic carbon ( DIC ) in the oceans and increases rapidly with the increase of the atmospheric CO 2 concentration. The buffer feedback would result in an increase of 95 ppm in the atmospheric CO 2 concentration and a decrease of 236 GtC absorbed by the oceans from the atmosphere between year 2000 and 2100 under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenario IS92e. By coupling our buffer feedback model with a global energy balance model, we find that global mean temperature increased 0.65°C from 1860 to 1990, which agreed well with the recorded value of 0.61°C. However, the ocean carbonate chemistry is quite insensitive to global temperature.