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Oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO 2 : The major uncertainties
Author(s) -
Sarmiento J. L.
Publication year - 1991
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 - 10.1029/91gb02705
Subject(s) - oceanography , biological pump , environmental science , global warming , climate change , greenhouse gas , carbon cycle , global change , ecology , geology , biology , ecosystem
The recent notes by Broecker [1991] and by Smith and Mackenzie [1991] rightfully point out that many oceanographers do not have a clear grasp of the relationship between the oceanic biological pump and anthropogenic CO 2 transient. This misunderstanding has unfortunately led some scientists to make misleading claims as to the importance of the biological pump in the anthropogenic transient. It is remarkable that someone who contributed as much to our understanding of the oceanic carbon cycle as Revelle could have incorrectly stated that the biological pump takes up anthropogenic CO 2 [Revelle, 199O]. However, both notes go too far when they dismiss the biological pump as being of minimal relevance to global change, with a particular indictment by Broecker of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) as having been guilty of “tarnishing the integrity of global change research” by “hitching their wagons to the greenhouse star.”