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Modeling the Recent Changes in the Arctic Ocean CO 2 Sink (2006–2013)
Author(s) -
Manizza Manfredi,
Menemenlis Dimitris,
Zhang Hong,
Miller Charles E.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
global biogeochemical cycles
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.512
H-Index - 187
eISSN - 1944-9224
pISSN - 0886-6236
DOI - 10.1029/2018gb006070
Subject(s) - sink (geography) , arctic , environmental science , carbon dioxide , carbon sink , climate change , biogeochemistry , oceanography , climatology , sea ice , arctic geoengineering , atmospheric sciences , geology , arctic ice pack , chemistry , geography , antarctic sea ice , cartography , organic chemistry
The Arctic Ocean (AO) and its associated marginal seas have recently experienced rapid climate and environmental changes, most notably sea‐ice area (SIA) loss and warming potentially impacting its uptake of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). We used the state‐of‐the‐art ECCO2‐Darwin coupled ocean‐biogeochemistry model to simulate the 2006–2013 period and investigate the impact of changing SIA on the CO 2 uptake of the AO. We find that the mean annual CO 2 sink of the AO is 153 ± 14 TgC a −1 and the CO 2 sink decreased at a rate of 3.6 TgC a −1 even though SIA decreased by 8 × 10 4 km 2 a −1 over the same period. Extreme SIA loss in 2007 resulted in a 185.4 TgC CO 2 sink, an increase ∼20% over the 2006–2013 mean. In contrast, extreme SIA loss of 2012 resulted in a CO 2 sink of the AO of only 146.3 TgC due to two main factors: (1) increased both wind speed and stratification in the Eastern Siberian Sea absorbing less CO 2 and (2) decreased primary production and area of air‐sea gas exchange in the Chukchi and Nordic Seas. Our model captures a trend of decreasing CO 2 sink in most of the Chukchi Sea during fall but does not show the changes in winter CO 2 sink in the Nordic and Barents Seas as previous independent studies have suggested. Our results indicate that future AO‐atmosphere CO 2 exchange will be determined by complex interplay of SIA and other environmental drivers.