Mathis Jeremy T.

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Jeremy T.
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  • Book chapter
    Addressing ocean acidification as part of sustainable ocean development
    ( 2012-10-09) Cooley, Sarah R. ; Mathis, Jeremy T.
    Many of the declarations and outcome documents from prior United Nations international meetings address ocean issues such as fishing, pollution, and climate change, but they do not address ocean acidification. This progressive alteration of seawater chemistry caused by uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is an emerging issue of concern that has potential consequences for marine ecosystems and the humans that depend on them. Addressing ocean acidification will require mitigation of global CO2 emissions at the international level accompanied by regional marine resource use adaptations that reduce the integrated pressure on marine ecosystems while the global community works towards implementing permanent CO2 emissions reductions. Addressing ocean acidification head-on is necessary because it poses a direct challenge to sustainable development targets such as the Millennium Development Goals, and it cannot be addressed adequately with accords or geoengineering plans that do not specifically decrease atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Here, we will briefly review the current state of ocean acidification knowledge and identify several mitigation and adaptation strategies that should be considered along with reductions in CO2 emissions to reduce the near-term impacts of ocean acidification. Our goal is to present potential options while identifying some of their inherent weaknesses to inform decisionmaking discussions, rather than to recommend adoption of specific policies. While the reduction of CO2 emissions should be the number one goal of the international community, it is unlikely that the widespread changes and infrastructure redevelopment necessary to accomplish this will be achieved soon, before ocean acidification’s short-term impacts become significant. Therefore, a multi-faceted approach must be employed to address this growing problem.
  • Article
    Eddy transport of organic carbon and nutrients from the Chukchi Shelf : impact on the upper halocline of the western Arctic Ocean
    (American Geophysical Union, 2007-05-04) Mathis, Jeremy T. ; Pickart, Robert S. ; Hansell, Dennis A. ; Kadko, David ; Bates, Nicholas R.
    In September 2004 a detailed physical and chemical survey was conducted on an anticyclonic, cold-core eddy located seaward of the Chukchi Shelf in the western Arctic Ocean. The eddy had a diameter of ∼16 km and was centered at a depth of ∼160 m between the 1000 and 1500 m isobaths over the continental slope. The water in the core of the eddy (total volume of 25 km3) was of Pacific origin, and contained elevated concentrations of nutrients, organic carbon, and suspended particles. The feature, which likely formed from the boundary current along the edge of the Chukchi Shelf, provides a mechanism for transport of carbon, oxygen, and nutrients directly into the upper halocline of the Canada Basin. Nutrient concentrations in the eddy core were elevated compared to waters of similar density in the deep Canada Basin: silicate (+20 μmol L−1), nitrate (+5 μmol L−1), and phosphate (+0.4 μmol L−1). Organic carbon in the eddy core was also elevated: POC (+3.8 μmol L−1) and DOC (+11 μmol L−1). From these observations, the eddy contained 1.25 × 109 moles Si, 4.5 × 108 moles NO3 −, 5.5 × 107 moles PO3 −, 1.2 × 108 moles POC, and 1.9 × 109 moles DOC, all available for transport to the interior of the Canada Basin. This suggests that such eddies likely play a significant role in maintaining the nutrient maxima observed in the upper halocline. Assuming that shelf-to-basin eddy transport is the dominant renewal mechanism for waters of the upper halocline, remineralization of the excess organic carbon transported into the interior would consume 6.70 × 1010 moles of O2, or one half the total oxygen consumption anticipated arising from all export processes impacting the upper halocline.
  • Article
    Significant biologically mediated CO2 uptake in the pacific arctic during the late open water season.
    (American Geophysical Union, 2019-01-10) Juranek, Laurie W. ; Takahashi, Taro ; Mathis, Jeremy T. ; Pickart, Robert S.
    Shifting baselines in the Arctic atmosphere‐sea ice‐ocean system have significant potential to alter biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem dynamics. In particular, the impact of increased open water duration on lower trophic level productivity and biological CO2 sequestration is poorly understood. Using high‐resolution observations of surface seawater dissolved O2/Ar and pCO2 collected in the Pacific Arctic in October 2011 and 2012, we evaluate spatial variability in biological metabolic status (autotrophy vs heterotrophy) as constrained by O2/Ar saturation (∆O2/Ar) as well as the relationship between net biological production and the sea‐air gradient of pCO2 (∆pCO2). We find a robust relationship between ∆pCO2 and ∆O2/Ar (correlation coefficient of −0.74 and −0.61 for 2011 and 2012, respectively), which suggests that biological production in the late open water season is an important determinant of the air‐sea CO2 gradient at a timeframe of maximal ocean uptake for CO2 in this region. Patchiness in biological production as indicated by ∆O2/Ar suggests spatially variable nutrient supply mechanisms supporting late season growth amidst a generally strongly stratified and nutrient‐limited condition.
  • Working Paper
    A science plan for carbon cycle research in North American coastal waters. Report of the Coastal CARbon Synthesis (CCARS) community workshop, August 19-21, 2014
    (Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry Program, 2016) Benway, Heather M. ; Alin, Simone R. ; Boyer, Elizabeth ; Cai, Wei-Jun ; Coble, Paula G. ; Cross, Jessica N. ; Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M. ; Goni, Miguel ; Griffith, Peter C. ; Herrmann, Maria ; Lohrenz, Steven E. ; Mathis, Jeremy T. ; McKinley, Galen A. ; Najjar, Raymond G. ; Pilskaln, Cynthia H. ; Siedlecki, Samantha A. ; Smith, Richard A.
    Relative to their surface area, continental margins represent some of the largest carbon fluxes in the global ocean, but sparse and sporadic sampling in space and time makes these systems difficult to characterize and quantify. Recognizing the importance of continental margins to the overall North American carbon budget, terrestrial and marine carbon cycle scientists have been collaborating on a series of synthesis, carbon budgeting, and modeling exercises for coastal regions of North America, which include the Gulf of Mexico, the Laurentian Great Lakes (LGL), and the coastal waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans. The Coastal CARbon Synthesis (CCARS) workshops and research activities have been conducted over the past several years as a partner activity between the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program and the North American Carbon Program (NACP) to synthesize existing data and improve quantitative assessments of the North American carbon budget.
  • Working Paper
    Frequently asked questions about ocean acidification
    (U.S. Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Program and the UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme., 2012-09-15) Cooley, Sarah R. ; Mathis, Jeremy T. ; Yates, Kimberly K. ; Turley, Carol
    Over the past five years, no other issue has received more attention in the marine science community than ocean acidification. Ocean acidification is a multi-disciplinary research area that encompasses topics such as chemistry, paleontology, biology, ecology, biogeochemistry, modeling, social sciences and economics. With this complexity and the continued development of our understanding in mind, the U.S. Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB; www.us-ocb.org) program, with support from the UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme (UKOA; http://www.oceanacidification.org.uk/), has updated and expanded a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) that were developed in 2010 by OCB, the European Project on Ocean Acidification (EPOCA), and UKOA. Equipped with the most up-to-date information, the global ocean acidification research community has drafted concise, understandable summaries of the current knowledge. The responses were carefully vetted during an open peer-review and revision process to ensure readability without any loss of scientific accuracy. This effort was international in scale, with 63 scientists from 47 institutions and 12 countries contributing to the process.
  • Article
    Age characteristics of a shelf-break eddy in the western Arctic and implications for shelf-basin exchange
    (American Geophysical Union, 2008-02-22) Kadko, David ; Pickart, Robert S. ; Mathis, Jeremy T.
    Radioisotope evaluation of a cold-core, anticyclonic eddy surveyed in September 2004 on the Chukchi Sea continental slope was used to determine its age since formation over the shelf environment. Because the eddy can be shown to have been generated near the shelf break, initial conditions for several age-dependent tracers could be relatively well constrained. A combination of 228Ra/226Ra, excess 224Ra, and 228Th/228Ra suggested an age on the order of months. This age is consistent with the presence of elevated concentrations of nutrients, organic carbon, suspended particles, and shelf-derived neritic zooplankton within the eddy compared to ambient offshore water in the Canada Basin but comparable to values measured in the Chukchi shelf and shelf-break environment. Hence this feature, at the edge of the deep basin, was poised to deliver biogeochemically significant shelf material to the central Arctic Ocean.
  • Article
    Ocean acidification risk assessment for Alaska’s fishery sector
    (Elsevier, 2014-07-14) Mathis, Jeremy T. ; Cooley, Sarah R. ; Lucey, Noelle ; Colt, Steve ; Ekstrom, Julia ; Hurst, Tom ; Hauri, Claudine ; Evans, Wiley ; Cross, Jessica N. ; Feely, Richard A.
    The highly productive fisheries of Alaska are located in seas projected to experience strong global change, including rapid transitions in temperature and ocean acidification-driven changes in pH and other chemical parameters. Many of the marine organisms that are most intensely affected by ocean acidification (OA) contribute substantially to the state’s commercial fisheries and traditional subsistence way of life. Prior studies of OA’s potential impacts on human communities have focused only on possible direct economic losses from specific scenarios of human dependence on commercial harvests and damages to marine species. However, other economic and social impacts, such as changes in food security or livelihoods, are also likely to result from climate change. This study evaluates patterns of dependence on marine resources within Alaska that could be negatively impacted by OA and current community characteristics to assess the potential risk to the fishery sector from OA. Here, we used a risk assessment framework based on one developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to analyze earth-system global ocean model hindcasts and projections of ocean chemistry, fisheries harvest data, and demographic information. The fisheries examined were: shellfish, salmon and other finfish. The final index incorporates all of these data to compare overall risk among Alaska’s federally designated census areas. The analysis showed that regions in southeast and southwest Alaska that are highly reliant on fishery harvests and have relatively lower incomes and employment alternatives likely face the highest risk from OA. Although this study is an intermediate step toward our full understanding, the results presented here show that OA merits consideration in policy planning, as it may represent another challenge to Alaskan communities, some of which are already under acute socio-economic strains.
  • Article
    Water properties, heat and volume fluxes of Pacific water in Barrow Canyon during summer 2010
    (Elsevier, 2015-04-25) Itoh, Motoyo ; Pickart, Robert S. ; Kikuchi, Takashi ; Fukamachi, Yasushi ; Ohshima, Kay I. ; Simizu, Daisuke ; Arrigo, Kevin R. ; Vagle, Svein ; He, Jianfeng ; Ashjian, Carin J. ; Mathis, Jeremy T. ; Nishino, Shigeto ; Nobre, Carolina
    Over the past few decades, sea ice retreat during summer has been enhanced in the Pacific sector of the Arctic basin, likely due in part to increasing summertime heat flux of Pacific-origin water from the Bering Strait. Barrow Canyon, in the northeast Chukchi Sea, is a major conduit through which the Pacific-origin water enters the Arctic basin. This paper presents results from 6 repeat high-resolution shipboard hydrographic/velocity sections occupied across Barrow Canyon in summer 2010. The different Pacific water masses feeding the canyon – Alaskan coastal water (ACW), summer Bering Sea water (BSW), and Pacific winter water (PWW) – all displayed significant intra-seasonal variability. Net volume transports through the canyon were between 0.96 and 1.70 Sv poleward, consisting of 0.41–0.98 Sv of warm Pacific water (ACW and BSW) and 0.28–0.65 Sv of PWW. The poleward heat flux also varied strongly, ranging from 8.56 TW to 24.56 TW, mainly due to the change in temperature of the warm Pacific water. Using supplemental mooring data from the core of the warm water, along with wind data from the Pt. Barrow weather station, we derive and assess a proxy for estimating heat flux in the canyon for the summer time period, which is when most of the heat passes northward towards the basin. The average heat flux for 2010 was estimated to be 3.34 TW, which is as large as the previous record maximum in 2007. This amount of heat could melt 315,000 km2 of 1-meter thick ice, which likely contributed to significant summer sea ice retreat in the Pacific sector of the Arctic Ocean.
  • Article
    Ocean acidification in the surface waters of the Pacific-Arctic boundary regions
    (The Oceanography Society, 2015-06) Mathis, Jeremy T. ; Cross, Jessica N. ; Evans, Wiley ; Doney, Scott C.
    The continental shelves of the Pacific-Arctic Region (PAR) are especially vulnerable to the effects of ocean acidification (OA) because the intrusion of anthropogenic CO2 is not the only process that can reduce pH and carbonate mineral saturation states for aragonite (Ωarag). Enhanced sea ice melt, respiration of organic matter, upwelling, and riverine inputs have been shown to exacerbate CO2 -driven ocean acidification in high-latitude regions. Additionally, the indirect effect of changing sea ice coverage is providing a positive feedback to OA as more open water will allow for greater uptake of atmospheric CO2 . Here, we compare model-based outputs from the Community Earth System Model with a subset of recent ship-based observations, and take an initial look at future model projections of surface water Ωarag in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas. We then use the model outputs to define benchmark years when biological impacts are likely to result from reduced Ωarag. Each of the three continental shelf seas in the PAR will become undersaturated with respect to aragonite at approximately 30-year intervals, indicating that aragonite undersaturations gradually progress upstream along the flow path of the waters as they move north from the Pacific Ocean. However, naturally high variability in Ωarag may indicate higher resilience of the Bering Sea ecosystem to these low-Ωarag conditions than the ecosystems of the Chukchi and the Beaufort Seas. Based on our initial results, we have determined that the annual mean for Ωarag will pass below the current range of natural variability in 2025 for the Beaufort Sea and 2027 for the Chukchi Sea. Because of the higher range of natural variability, the annual mean for Ωarag for the Bering Sea does not pass out of the natural variability range until 2044. As Ωarag in these shelf seas slips below the present-day range of large seasonal variability by mid-century, the diverse ecosystems that support some of the largest commercial and subsistence fisheries in the world may be under tremendous pressure.
  • Preprint
    Changes in ocean heat, carbon content, and ventilation : a review of the first decade of GO-SHIP Global Repeat Hydrography
    ( 2015-05-30) Talley, Lynne D. ; Feely, Richard A. ; Sloyan, Bernadette M. ; Wanninkhof, Rik ; Baringer, Molly O. ; Bullister, John L. ; Carlson, Craig A. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Fine, Rana A. ; Firing, Eric ; Gruber, Nicolas ; Hansell, Dennis A. ; Ishii, Masayoshi ; Johnson, Gregory ; Katsumata, K. ; Key, Robert M. ; Kramp, Martin ; Langdon, Chris ; Macdonald, Alison M. ; Mathis, Jeremy T. ; McDonagh, Elaine L. ; Mecking, Sabine ; Millero, Frank J. ; Mordy, Calvin W. ; Nakano, T. ; Sabine, Chris L. ; Smethie, William M. ; Swift, James H. ; Tanhua, Toste ; Thurnherr, Andreas M. ; Warner, Mark J. ; Zhang, Jia-Zhong
    The ocean, a central component of Earth’s climate system, is changing. Given the global scope of these changes, highly accurate measurements of physical and biogeochemical properties need to be conducted over the full water column, spanning the ocean basins from coast to coast, and repeated every decade at a minimum, with a ship-based observing system. Since the late 1970s, when the Geochemical Ocean Sections Study (GEOSECS) conducted the first global survey of this kind, the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) and Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), and now the Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP) have collected these “reference standard” data that allow quantification of ocean heat and carbon uptake, and variations in salinity, oxygen, nutrients, and acidity on basin scales. The evolving GO-SHIP measurement suite also provides new global information about dissolved organic carbon, a large bioactive reservoir of carbon.
  • Article
    Formation and transport of corrosive water in the Pacific Arctic region
    (Elsevier, 2018-06-22) Cross, Jessica N. ; Mathis, Jeremy T. ; Pickart, Robert S. ; Bates, Nicholas R.
    Ocean acidification (OA), driven by rising anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2), is rapidly advancing in the Pacific Arctic Region (PAR), producing conditions newly corrosive to biologically important carbonate minerals like aragonite. Naturally short linkages across the PAR food web mean that species-specific acidification stress can be rapidly transmitted across multiple trophic levels, resulting in widespread impacts. Therefore, it is critical to understand the formation, transport, and persistence of acidified conditions in the PAR in order to better understand and project potential impacts to this delicately balanced ecosystem. Here, we synthesize data from process studies across the PAR to show the formation of corrosive conditions in colder, denser winter-modified Pacific waters over shallow shelves, resulting from the combination of seasonal terrestrial and marine organic matter respiration with anthropogenic CO2. When these waters are subsequently transported off the shelf, they acidify the Pacific halocline. We estimate that Barrow Canyon outflow delivers ~2.24 Tg C yr-1 to the Arctic Ocean through corrosive winter water transport. This synthesis also allows the combination of spatial data with temporal data to show the persistence of these conditions in halocline waters. For example, one study in this synthesis indicated that 0.5–1.7 Tg C yr-1 may be returned to the atmosphere via air-sea gas exchange of CO2 during upwelling events along the Beaufort Sea shelf that bring Pacific halocline waters to the ocean surface. The loss of CO2 during these events is more than sufficient to eliminate corrosive conditions in the upwelled Pacific halocline waters. However, corresponding moored and discrete data records indicate that potentially corrosive Pacific waters are present in the Beaufort shelfbreak jet during 80% of the year, indicating that the persistence of acidified waters in the Pacific halocline far outweighs any seasonal mitigation from upwelling. Across the datasets in this large-scale synthesis, we estimate that the persistent corrosivity of the Pacific halocline is a recent phenomenon that appeared between 1975 and 1985. Over that short time, these potentially corrosive waters originating over the continental shelves have been observed as far as the entrances to Amundsen Gulf and M’Clure Strait in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The formation and transport of corrosive waters on the Pacific Arctic shelves may have widespread impact on the Arctic biogeochemical system and food web reaching all the way to the North Atlantic.
  • Article
    Storm-induced upwelling of high pCO2 waters onto the continental shelf of the western Arctic Ocean and implications for carbonate mineral saturation states
    (American Geophysical Union, 2012-04-11) Mathis, Jeremy T. ; Pickart, Robert S. ; Byrne, Robert H. ; McNeil, Craig L. ; Moore, G. W. K. ; Juranek, Laurie W. ; Liu, Xuewu ; Ma, Jian ; Easley, Regina A. ; Elliot, Matthew M. ; Cross, Jessica N. ; Reisdorph, Stacey C. ; Bahr, Frank B. ; Morison, James H. ; Lichendorf, Trina ; Feely, Richard A.
    The carbon system of the western Arctic Ocean is undergoing a rapid transition as sea ice extent and thickness decline. These processes are dynamically forcing the region, with unknown consequences for CO2 fluxes and carbonate mineral saturation states, particularly in the coastal regions where sensitive ecosystems are already under threat from multiple stressors. In October 2011, persistent wind-driven upwelling occurred in open water along the continental shelf of the Beaufort Sea in the western Arctic Ocean. During this time, cold (<−1.2°C), salty (>32.4) halocline water—supersaturated with respect to atmospheric CO2 (pCO2 > 550 μatm) and undersaturated in aragonite (Ωaragonite < 1.0) was transported onto the Beaufort shelf. A single 10-day event led to the outgassing of 0.18–0.54 Tg-C and caused aragonite undersaturations throughout the water column over the shelf. If we assume a conservative estimate of four such upwelling events each year, then the annual flux to the atmosphere would be 0.72–2.16 Tg-C, which is approximately the total annual sink of CO2 in the Beaufort Sea from primary production. Although a natural process, these upwelling events have likely been exacerbated in recent years by declining sea ice cover and changing atmospheric conditions in the region, and could have significant impacts on regional carbon budgets. As sea ice retreat continues and storms increase in frequency and intensity, further outgassing events and the expansion of waters that are undersaturated in carbonate minerals over the shelf are probable.
  • Article
    An assessment of the Atlantic and Arctic sea–air CO2 fluxes, 1990–2009
    (Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2013-01-29) Schuster, Ute ; McKinley, Galen A. ; Bates, Nicholas R. ; Chevallier, Frédéric ; Doney, Scott C. ; Fay, A. R. ; Gonzalez-Davila, M. ; Gruber, Nicolas ; Jones, S. ; Krijnen, J. ; Landschutzer, Peter ; Lefevre, N. ; Manizza, Manfredi ; Mathis, Jeremy T. ; Metzl, Nicolas ; Olsen, Are ; Rios, Aida F. ; Rodenbeck, C. ; Santana-Casiano, J. M. ; Takahashi, Taro ; Wanninkhof, Rik ; Watson, Andrew J.
    The Atlantic and Arctic Oceans are critical components of the global carbon cycle. Here we quantify the net sea–air CO2 flux, for the first time, across different methodologies for consistent time and space scales for the Atlantic and Arctic basins. We present the long-term mean, seasonal cycle, interannual variability and trends in sea–air CO2 flux for the period 1990 to 2009, and assign an uncertainty to each. We use regional cuts from global observations and modeling products, specifically a pCO2-based CO2 flux climatology, flux estimates from the inversion of oceanic and atmospheric data, and results from six ocean biogeochemical models. Additionally, we use basin-wide flux estimates from surface ocean pCO2 observations based on two distinct methodologies. Our estimate of the contemporary sea–air flux of CO2 (sum of anthropogenic and natural components) by the Atlantic between 40° S and 79° N is −0.49 ± 0.05 Pg C yr−1, and by the Arctic it is −0.12 ± 0.06 Pg C yr−1, leading to a combined sea–air flux of −0.61 ± 0.06 Pg C yr−1 for the two decades (negative reflects ocean uptake). We do find broad agreement amongst methodologies with respect to the seasonal cycle in the subtropics of both hemispheres, but not elsewhere. Agreement with respect to detailed signals of interannual variability is poor, and correlations to the North Atlantic Oscillation are weaker in the North Atlantic and Arctic than in the equatorial region and southern subtropics. Linear trends for 1995 to 2009 indicate increased uptake and generally correspond between methodologies in the North Atlantic, but there is disagreement amongst methodologies in the equatorial region and southern subtropics.
  • Article
    Global carbon budget 2014
    (Copernicus Publications, 2015-05-08) Le Quere, Corinne ; Moriarty, Roisin ; Andrew, Robbie M. ; Peters, Glen P. ; Ciais, Philippe ; Friedlingstein, Pierre ; Jones, S. D. ; Sitch, Stephen ; Tans, Pieter P. ; Arneth, Almut ; Boden, Thomas A. ; Bopp, Laurent ; Bozec, Yann ; Canadell, Josep G. ; Chini, Louise Parsons ; Chevallier, Frédéric ; Cosca, Catherine E. ; Harris, Ian ; Hoppema, Mario ; Houghton, Richard A. ; House, Jo I. ; Jain, Atul K. ; Johannessen, T. ; Kato, Etsushi ; Keeling, Ralph F. ; Kitidis, Vassilis ; Klein Goldewijk, Kees ; Koven, Charles ; Landa, C. S. ; Landschutzer, Peter ; Lenton, Andrew ; Lima, Ivan D. ; Marland, G. ; Mathis, Jeremy T. ; Metzl, Nicolas ; Nojiri, Yukihiro ; Olsen, Are ; Ono, Tsuneo ; Peng, S. ; Peters, W. ; Pfeil, Benjamin ; Poulter, Benjamin ; Raupach, Michael R. ; Regnier, P. ; Rodenbeck, C. ; Saito, Shu ; Salisbury, Joseph E. ; Schuster, Ute ; Schwinger, Jorg ; Seferian, Roland ; Segschneider, J. ; Steinhoff, Tobias ; Stocker, Benjamin D. ; Sutton, Adrienne J. ; Takahashi, Taro ; Tilbrook, Bronte ; van der Werf, Guido R. ; Viovy, Nicolas ; Wang, Y.-P. ; Wanninkhof, Rik ; Wiltshire, Andrew J. ; Zeng, Ning
    Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere is important to better understand the global carbon cycle, support the development of climate policies, and project future climate change. Here we describe data sets and a methodology to quantify all major components of the global carbon budget, including their uncertainties, based on the combination of a range of data, algorithms, statistics, and model estimates and their interpretation by a broad scientific community. We discuss changes compared to previous estimates, consistency within and among components, alongside methodology and data limitations. CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production (EFF) are based on energy statistics and cement production data, respectively, while emissions from land-use change (ELUC), mainly deforestation, are based on combined evidence from land-cover-change data, fire activity associated with deforestation, and models. The global atmospheric CO2 concentration is measured directly and its rate of growth (GATM) is computed from the annual changes in concentration. The mean ocean CO2 sink (SOCEAN) is based on observations from the 1990s, while the annual anomalies and trends are estimated with ocean models. The variability in SOCEAN is evaluated with data products based on surveys of ocean CO2 measurements. The global residual terrestrial CO2 sink (SLAND) is estimated by the difference of the other terms of the global carbon budget and compared to results of independent dynamic global vegetation models forced by observed climate, CO2, and land-cover-change (some including nitrogen–carbon interactions). We compare the mean land and ocean fluxes and their variability to estimates from three atmospheric inverse methods for three broad latitude bands. All uncertainties are reported as ±1σ, reflecting the current capacity to characterise the annual estimates of each component of the global carbon budget. For the last decade available (2004–2013), EFF was 8.9 ± 0.4 GtC yr−1, ELUC 0.9 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1, GATM 4.3 ± 0.1 GtC yr−1, SOCEAN 2.6 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1, and SLAND 2.9 ± 0.8 GtC yr−1. For year 2013 alone, EFF grew to 9.9 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1, 2.3% above 2012, continuing the growth trend in these emissions, ELUC was 0.9 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1, GATM was 5.4 ± 0.2 GtC yr−1, SOCEAN was 2.9 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1, and SLAND was 2.5 ± 0.9 GtC yr−1. GATM was high in 2013, reflecting a steady increase in EFF and smaller and opposite changes between SOCEAN and SLAND compared to the past decade (2004–2013). The global atmospheric CO2 concentration reached 395.31 ± 0.10 ppm averaged over 2013. We estimate that EFF will increase by 2.5% (1.3–3.5%) to 10.1 ± 0.6 GtC in 2014 (37.0 ± 2.2 GtCO2 yr−1), 65% above emissions in 1990, based on projections of world gross domestic product and recent changes in the carbon intensity of the global economy. From this projection of EFF and assumed constant ELUC for 2014, cumulative emissions of CO2 will reach about 545 ± 55 GtC (2000 ± 200 GtCO2) for 1870–2014, about 75% from EFF and 25% from ELUC. This paper documents changes in the methods and data sets used in this new carbon budget compared with previous publications of this living data set (Le Quéré et al., 2013, 2014). All observations presented here can be downloaded from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (doi:10.3334/CDIAC/GCP_2014).