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Effect of land‐ice melting and associated changes in the AMOC result in little overall impact on oceanic CO 2 uptake
Author(s) -
Swingedouw D.,
Bopp L.,
Matras A.,
Braconnot P.
Publication year - 2007
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 - 10.1029/2007gl031990
Subject(s) - environmental science , latitude , climatology , atmospheric sciences , biogeochemistry , climate change , salinity , general circulation model , zonal and meridional , geology , oceanography , geodesy
The impact of Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) melting and associated weakening in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) on carbon uptake is quantitatively evaluated using coupled climate and biogeochemistry models. We compare two 140‐yr global warming scenarios, forced by the same increase in atmospheric CO 2 , but with different GIS melting rates. The AMOC weakening in our 2 scenarios is −47% and −21% at 4 × CO 2 when the melting of GIS is or is not considered, respectively. We find that GIS melting and AMOC‐induced weakening have little influence on the CO 2 uptake. By isolating the specific effects of salinity and temperature changes on carbon uptake, we find that opposing processes tend to limit the effect of GIS melting. Indeed, in the GIS melting scenario, less saline and cooler waters in high latitudes northern seas tend to increase CO 2 uptake and counter‐balance the decreasing CO 2 uptake that follows from circulation changes alone.