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Ocean primary production and climate: Global decadal changes
Author(s) -
Gregg Watson W.,
Conkright Margarita E.,
Ginoux Paul,
O'Reilly John E.,
Casey Nancy W.
Publication year - 2003
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 - 10.1029/2003gl016889
Subject(s) - environmental science , latitude , climatology , primary production , oceanography , sea surface temperature , carbon cycle , climate change , atmospheric sciences , geology , ecosystem , ecology , geodesy , biology
Satellite‐in situ blended ocean chlorophyll records indicate that global ocean annual primary production has declined more than 6% since the early 1980's. Nearly 70% of the global decadal decline occurred in the high latitudes. In the northern high latitudes, these reductions in primary production corresponded with increases in sea surface temperature and decreases in atmospheric iron deposition to the oceans. In the Antarctic, the reductions were accompanied by increased wind stress. Three of four low latitude basins exhibited decadal increases in annual primary production. These results indicate that ocean photosynthetic uptake of carbon may be changing as a result of climatic changes and suggest major implications for the global carbon cycle.