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Does Export Production Measure Transient Changes of the Biological Carbon Pump's Feedback to the Atmosphere Under Global Warming?
Author(s) -
Koeve W.,
Kähler P.,
Oschlies A.
Publication year - 2020
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 - 10.1029/2020gl089928
Subject(s) - atmosphere (unit) , environmental science , biological pump , oxygen , global warming , deep sea , carbon dioxide , effects of global warming on oceans , carbon fibers , greenhouse gas , climate change , carbon cycle , photic zone , atmospheric sciences , production (economics) , measure (data warehouse) , oceanography , meteorology , chemistry , geology , ecosystem , ecology , biology , computer science , nutrient , physics , phytoplankton , algorithm , database , macroeconomics , composite number , economics , organic chemistry
In a widely‐held conception, the biological carbon pump (BCP) is equal to the export of organic matter out of the euphotic zone. Using global ocean‐atmosphere model experiments we show that the change in export production is a poor measure of the biological pump's feedback to the atmosphere. The change in global true oxygen utilization (TOU), an integrative measure of the imprint of the BCP on marine oxygen, however, is in good agreement with the net change in the biogenic air‐sea flux of oxygen. Since TOU correlates very well with apparent oxygen utilization (AOU) in our experiments, we propose to measure the change of AOU from data of global float programs to monitor the feedback of the BCP to the atmosphere. For the current ocean we estimate that BCP changes effect a CO 2 uptake by the ocean in the range of 0.07 to 0.14 GtC/yr.