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Role of wind stress and heat fluxes in interannual‐to‐decadal variability of air‐sea CO 2 and O 2 fluxes in the North Atlantic
Author(s) -
Friedrich T.,
Oschlies A.,
Eden C.
Publication year - 2006
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 - 10.1029/2006gl026538
Subject(s) - environmental science , wind stress , tropical atlantic , subtropics , flux (metallurgy) , oceanography , climatology , atmospheric sciences , sea surface temperature , geology , chemistry , organic chemistry , fishery , biology
A coupled ecosystem‐circulation model of the North Atlantic is used to examine the individual contributions by wind stress and surface heat fluxes to naturally driven interannual‐to‐decadal variability of air‐sea fluxes of CO 2 and O 2 during 1948–2002. The model results indicate that variations in O 2 fluxes are mainly driven by variations in surface heat fluxes in the extratropics (15°N to 70°N), and by wind stress in the tropics (10°S to 15°N). Conversely, variations in simulated CO 2 fluxes are predominantly wind‐stress driven over the entire model domain (18°S to 70°N); while variability in piston velocity and surface heat fluxes is less important. The simulated uptake of O 2 by the North Atlantic amounts to 70 ± 11 Tmol yr −1 to which the subpolar region (45°N to 70°N) contributes by 62 ± 10 Tmol yr −1 . Whereas the subpolar North Atlantic takes up more than 2/3 of the total carbon absorbed by the North Atlantic in our model (about 0.3 Pg C yr −1 ), interannual variability of air‐sea CO 2 fluxes reaches similar values (about 0.01 Pg C yr −1 each) in the subpolar (45°N to 70°N), the subtropical (15°N to 45°N) and the equatorial (10°S to 15°N) Atlantic.