Sarmiento Jorge L.

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Sarmiento

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Jorge L.

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Correction to “Using altimetry to help explain patchy changes in hydrographic carbon measurements”

(American Geophysical Union, 2009-12-09) Rodgers, Keith B. ; Key, Robert M. ; Gnanadesikan, Anand ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Aumont, Olivier ; Bopp, Laurent ; Doney, Scott C. ; Dunne, John P. ; Glover, David M. ; Ishida, Akio ; Ishii, Masao ; Jacobson, Andrew R. ; Monaco, Claire Lo ; Maier-Reimer, Ernst ; Mercier, Herlé ; Metzl, Nicolas ; Perez, Fiz F. ; Rios, Aida F. ; Wanninkhof, Rik ; Wetzel, Patrick ; Winn, Christopher D. ; Yamanaka, Yasuhiro
Author Correction : Spiraling pathways of global deep waters to the surface of the Southern Ocean

(Nature Publishing Group, 2018-01-15) Tamsitt, Veronica ; Drake, Henri F. ; Morrison, Adele K. ; Talley, Lynne D. ; Dufour, Carolina O. ; Gray, Alison R. ; Griffies, Stephen M. ; Mazloff, Matthew R. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Wang, Jinbo ; Weijer, Wilbert

Correction to: Nature Communications 8:172 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00197-0; Article published online: 2 August 2017
Oceanic sources, sinks, and transport of atmospheric CO2

(American Geophysical Union, 2009-02-18) Gruber, Nicolas ; Gloor, Emanuel ; Mikaloff Fletcher, Sara E. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Dutkiewicz, Stephanie ; Follows, Michael J. ; Gerber, Markus ; Jacobson, Andrew R. ; Joos, Fortunat ; Lindsay, Keith ; Menemenlis, Dimitris ; Mouchet, Anne ; Muller, Simon A. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Takahashi, Taro

We synthesize estimates of the contemporary net air-sea CO2 flux on the basis of an inversion of interior ocean carbon observations using a suite of 10 ocean general circulation models (Mikaloff Fletcher et al., 2006, 2007) and compare them to estimates based on a new climatology of the air-sea difference of the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) (Takahashi et al., 2008). These two independent flux estimates reveal a consistent description of the regional distribution of annual mean sources and sinks of atmospheric CO2 for the decade of the 1990s and the early 2000s with differences at the regional level of generally less than 0.1 Pg C a−1. This distribution is characterized by outgassing in the tropics, uptake in midlatitudes, and comparatively small fluxes in thehigh latitudes. Both estimates point toward a small (∼ −0.3 Pg C a−1) contemporary CO2 sink in the Southern Ocean (south of 44°S), a result of the near cancellation between a substantial outgassing of natural CO2 and a strong uptake of anthropogenic CO2. A notable exception in the generally good agreement between the two estimates exists within the Southern Ocean: the ocean inversion suggests a relatively uniform uptake, while the pCO2-based estimate suggests strong uptake in the region between 58°S and 44°S, and a source in the region south of 58°S. Globally and for a nominal period between 1995 and 2000, the contemporary net air-sea flux of CO2 is estimated to be −1.7 ± 0.4 Pg C a−1 (inversion) and −1.4 ± 0.7 Pg C a−1 (pCO2-climatology), respectively, consisting of an outgassing flux of river-derived carbon of ∼+0.5 Pg C a−1, and an uptake flux of anthropogenic carbon of −2.2 ± 0.3 Pg C a−1 (inversion) and −1.9 ± 0.7 Pg C a−1 (pCO2-climatology). The two flux estimates also imply a consistent description of the contemporary meridional transport of carbon with southward ocean transport throughout most of the Atlantic basin, and strong equatorward convergence in the Indo-Pacific basins. Both transport estimates suggest a small hemispheric asymmetry with a southward transport of between −0.2 and −0.3 Pg C a−1 across the equator. While the convergence of these two independent estimates is encouraging and suggests that it is now possible to provide relatively tight constraints for the net air-sea CO2 fluxes at the regional basis, both studies are limited by their lack of consideration of long-term changes in the ocean carbon cycle, such as the recent possible stalling in the expected growth of the Southern Ocean carbon sink.
Lagrangian timescales of Southern Ocean upwelling in a hierarchy of model resolutions

(John Wiley & Sons, 2018-01-31) Drake, Henri F. ; Morrison, Adele K. ; Griffies, Stephen M. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Weijer, Wilbert ; Gray, Alison R.

In this paper we study upwelling pathways and timescales of Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) in a hierarchy of models using a Lagrangian particle tracking method. Lagrangian timescales of CDW upwelling decrease from 87 years to 31 years to 17 years as the ocean resolution is refined from 1° to 0.25° to 0.1°. We attribute some of the differences in timescale to the strength of the eddy fields, as demonstrated by temporally degrading high-resolution model velocity fields. Consistent with the timescale dependence, we find that an average Lagrangian particle completes 3.2 circumpolar loops in the 1° model in comparison to 0.9 loops in the 0.1° model. These differences suggest that advective timescales and thus interbasin merging of upwelling CDW may be overestimated by coarse-resolution models, potentially affecting the skill of centennial scale climate change projections.
Response of ocean ecosystems to climate warming

(American Geophysical Union, 2004-07-14) Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Slater, Richard D. ; Barber, Richard T. ; Bopp, Laurent ; Doney, Scott C. ; Hirst, A. C. ; Kleypas, Joan A. ; Matear, Richard J. ; Mikolajewicz, U. ; Monfray, Patrick ; Soldatov, V. ; Spall, S. A. ; Stouffer, R.

We examine six different coupled climate model simulations to determine the ocean biological response to climate warming between the beginning of the industrial revolution and 2050. We use vertical velocity, maximum winter mixed layer depth, and sea ice cover to define six biomes. Climate warming leads to a contraction of the highly productive marginal sea ice biome by 42% in the Northern Hemisphere and 17% in the Southern Hemisphere, and leads to an expansion of the low productivity permanently stratified subtropical gyre biome by 4.0% in the Northern Hemisphere and 9.4% in the Southern Hemisphere. In between these, the subpolar gyre biome expands by 16% in the Northern Hemisphere and 7% in the Southern Hemisphere, and the seasonally stratified subtropical gyre contracts by 11% in both hemispheres. The low-latitude (mostly coastal) upwelling biome area changes only modestly. Vertical stratification increases, which would be expected to decrease nutrient supply everywhere, but increase the growing season length in high latitudes. We use satellite ocean color and climatological observations to develop an empirical model for predicting chlorophyll from the physical properties of the global warming simulations. Four features stand out in the response to global warming: (1) a drop in chlorophyll in the North Pacific due primarily to retreat of the marginal sea ice biome, (2) a tendency toward an increase in chlorophyll in the North Atlantic due to a complex combination of factors, (3) an increase in chlorophyll in the Southern Ocean due primarily to the retreat of and changes at the northern boundary of the marginal sea ice zone, and (4) a tendency toward a decrease in chlorophyll adjacent to the Antarctic continent due primarily to freshening within the marginal sea ice zone. We use three different primary production algorithms to estimate the response of primary production to climate warming based on our estimated chlorophyll concentrations. The three algorithms give a global increase in primary production of 0.7% at the low end to 8.1% at the high end, with very large regional differences. The main cause of both the response to warming and the variation between algorithms is the temperature sensitivity of the primary production algorithms. We also show results for the period between the industrial revolution and 2050 and 2090.
Global estimate of submarine groundwater discharge based on an observationally constrained radium isotope model

(John Wiley & Sons, 2014-12-03) Kwon, Eun Young ; Kim, Guebuem ; Primeau, Francois W. ; Moore, Willard S. ; Cho, Hyung-Mi ; DeVries, Timothy ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Charette, Matthew A. ; Cho, Yang-Ki

Along the continental margins, rivers and submarine groundwater supply nutrients, trace elements, and radionuclides to the coastal ocean, supporting coastal ecosystems and, increasingly, causing harmful algal blooms and eutrophication. While the global magnitude of gauged riverine water discharge is well known, the magnitude of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) is poorly constrained. Using an inverse model combined with a global compilation of 228Ra observations, we show that the SGD integrated over the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans between 60°S and 70°N is (12 ± 3) × 1013 m3 yr−1, which is 3 to 4 times greater than the freshwater fluxes into the oceans by rivers. Unlike the rivers, where more than half of the total flux is discharged into the Atlantic, about 70% of SGD flows into the Indo-Pacific Oceans. We suggest that SGD is the dominant pathway for dissolved terrestrial materials to the global ocean, and this necessitates revisions for the budgets of chemical elements including carbon.
Detection of anthropogenic climate change in satellite records of ocean chlorophyll and productivity

(Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2010-02-15) Henson, Stephanie A. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Dunne, John P. ; Bopp, Laurent ; Lima, Ivan D. ; Doney, Scott C. ; John, Jasmin G. ; Beaulieu, C.

Global climate change is predicted to alter the ocean's biological productivity. But how will we recognise the impacts of climate change on ocean productivity? The most comprehensive information available on its global distribution comes from satellite ocean colour data. Now that over ten years of satellite-derived chlorophyll and productivity data have accumulated, can we begin to detect and attribute climate change-driven trends in productivity? Here we compare recent trends in satellite ocean colour data to longer-term time series from three biogeochemical models (GFDL, IPSL and NCAR). We find that detection of climate change-driven trends in the satellite data is confounded by the relatively short time series and large interannual and decadal variability in productivity. Thus, recent observed changes in chlorophyll, primary production and the size of the oligotrophic gyres cannot be unequivocally attributed to the impact of global climate change. Instead, our analyses suggest that a time series of ~40 years length is needed to distinguish a global warming trend from natural variability. In some regions, notably equatorial regions, detection times are predicted to be shorter (~20–30 years). Analysis of modelled chlorophyll and primary production from 2001–2100 suggests that, on average, the climate change-driven trend will not be unambiguously separable from decadal variability until ~2055. Because the magnitude of natural variability in chlorophyll and primary production is larger than, or similar to, the global warming trend, a consistent, decades-long data record must be established if the impact of climate change on ocean productivity is to be definitively detected.
How does ocean biology affect atmospheric pCO2? Theory and models

(American Geophysical Union, 2008-07-22) Marinov, Irina ; Follows, Michael J. ; Gnanadesikan, Anand ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Slater, Richard D.

This paper examines the sensitivity of atmospheric pCO2 to changes in ocean biology that result in drawdown of nutrients at the ocean surface. We show that the global inventory of preformed nutrients is the key determinant of atmospheric pCO2 and the oceanic carbon storage due to the soft-tissue pump (OCS soft ). We develop a new theory showing that under conditions of perfect equilibrium between atmosphere and ocean, atmospheric pCO2 can be written as a sum of exponential functions of OCS soft . The theory also demonstrates how the sensitivity of atmospheric pCO2 to changes in the soft-tissue pump depends on the preformed nutrient inventory and on surface buffer chemistry. We validate our theory against simulations of nutrient depletion in a suite of realistic general circulation models (GCMs). The decrease in atmospheric pCO2 following surface nutrient depletion depends on the oceanic circulation in the models. Increasing deep ocean ventilation by increasing vertical mixing or Southern Ocean winds increases the atmospheric pCO2 sensitivity to surface nutrient forcing. Conversely, stratifying the Southern Ocean decreases the atmospheric CO2 sensitivity to surface nutrient depletion. Surface CO2 disequilibrium due to the slow gas exchange with the atmosphere acts to make atmospheric pCO2 more sensitive to nutrient depletion in high-ventilation models and less sensitive to nutrient depletion in low-ventilation models. Our findings have potentially important implications for both past and future climates.
Impact of oceanic circulation on biological carbon storage in the ocean and atmospheric pCO2

(American Geophysical Union, 2008-07-23) Marinov, Irina ; Gnanadesikan, Anand ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Toggweiler, J. R. ; Follows, Michael J. ; Mignone, B. K.

We use both theory and ocean biogeochemistry models to examine the role of the soft-tissue biological pump in controlling atmospheric CO2. We demonstrate that atmospheric CO2 can be simply related to the amount of inorganic carbon stored in the ocean by the soft-tissue pump, which we term (OCS soft ). OCS soft is linearly related to the inventory of remineralized nutrient, which in turn is just the total nutrient inventory minus the preformed nutrient inventory. In a system where total nutrient is conserved, atmospheric CO2 can thus be simply related to the global inventory of preformed nutrient. Previous model simulations have explored how changes in the surface concentration of nutrients in deepwater formation regions change the global preformed nutrient inventory. We show that changes in physical forcing such as winds, vertical mixing, and lateral mixing can shift the balance of deepwater formation between the North Atlantic (where preformed nutrients are low) and the Southern Ocean (where they are high). Such changes in physical forcing can thus drive large changes in atmospheric CO2, even with minimal changes in surface nutrient concentration. If Southern Ocean deepwater formation strengthens, the preformed nutrient inventory and thus atmospheric CO2 increase. An important consequence of these new insights is that the relationship between surface nutrient concentrations, biological export production, and atmospheric CO2 is more complex than previously predicted. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we show that OCS soft can increase and atmospheric CO2 decrease, while surface nutrients show minimal change and export production decreases.
Supercooled Southern Ocean waters

(American Geophysical Union, 2020-10-09) Haumann, F. Alexander ; Moorman, Ruth ; Riser, Stephen C. ; Smedsrud, Lars H. ; Maksym, Ted ; Wong, Annie P. S. ; Wilson, Earle A. ; Drucker, Robert S. ; Talley, Lynne D. ; Johnson, Kenneth S. ; Key, Robert M. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L.

In cold polar waters, temperatures sometimes drop below the freezing point, a process referred to as supercooling. However, observational challenges in polar regions limit our understanding of the spatial and temporal extent of this phenomenon. We here provide observational evidence that supercooled waters are much more widespread in the seasonally ice‐covered Southern Ocean than previously reported. In 5.8% of all analyzed hydrographic profiles south of 55°S, we find temperatures below the surface freezing point (“potential” supercooling), and half of these have temperatures below the local freezing point (“in situ” supercooling). Their occurrence doubles when neglecting measurement uncertainties. We attribute deep coastal‐ocean supercooling to melting of Antarctic ice shelves and surface‐induced supercooling in the seasonal sea‐ice region to wintertime sea‐ice formation. The latter supercooling type can extend down to the permanent pycnocline due to convective sinking plumes—an important mechanism for vertical tracer transport and water‐mass structure in the polar ocean.
Inverse estimates of anthropogenic CO2 uptake, transport, and storage by the ocean

(American Geophysical Union, 2006-04-05) Mikaloff Fletcher, Sara E. ; Gruber, Nicolas ; Jacobson, Andrew R. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Dutkiewicz, Stephanie ; Gerber, Markus ; Follows, Michael J. ; Joos, Fortunat ; Lindsay, Keith ; Menemenlis, Dimitris ; Mouchet, Anne ; Muller, Simon A. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L.

Regional air-sea fluxes of anthropogenic CO2 are estimated using a Green's function inversion method that combines data-based estimates of anthropogenic CO2 in the ocean with information about ocean transport and mixing from a suite of Ocean General Circulation Models (OGCMs). In order to quantify the uncertainty associated with the estimated fluxes owing to modeled transport and errors in the data, we employ 10 OGCMs and three scenarios representing biases in the data-based anthropogenic CO2 estimates. On the basis of the prescribed anthropogenic CO2 storage, we find a global uptake of 2.2 ± 0.25 Pg C yr−1, scaled to 1995. This error estimate represents the standard deviation of the models weighted by a CFC-based model skill score, which reduces the error range and emphasizes those models that have been shown to reproduce observed tracer concentrations most accurately. The greatest anthropogenic CO2 uptake occurs in the Southern Ocean and in the tropics. The flux estimates imply vigorous northward transport in the Southern Hemisphere, northward cross-equatorial transport, and equatorward transport at high northern latitudes. Compared with forward simulations, we find substantially more uptake in the Southern Ocean, less uptake in the Pacific Ocean, and less global uptake. The large-scale spatial pattern of the estimated flux is generally insensitive to possible biases in the data and the models employed. However, the global uptake scales approximately linearly with changes in the global anthropogenic CO2 inventory. Considerable uncertainties remain in some regions, particularly the Southern Ocean.
Anthropogenic ocean acidification over the twenty-first century and its impact on calcifying organisms

( 2005-07-29) Orr, James C. ; Fabry, Victoria J. ; Aumont, Olivier ; Bopp, Laurent ; Doney, Scott C. ; Feely, Richard A. ; Gnanadesikan, Anand ; Gruber, Nicolas ; Ishida, Akio ; Joos, Fortunat ; Key, Robert M. ; Lindsay, Keith ; Maier-Reimer, Ernst ; Matear, Richard J. ; Monfray, Patrick ; Mouchet, Anne ; Najjar, Raymond G. ; Plattner, Gian-Kasper ; Rodgers, Keith B. ; Sabine, Christopher L. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Schlitzer, Reiner ; Slater, Richard D. ; Totterdell, Ian J. ; Weirig, Marie-France ; Yamanaka, Yasuhiro ; Yool, Andrew

The surface ocean is everywhere saturated with respect to calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Yet increasing atmospheric CO2 reduces ocean pH and carbonate ion concentrations [CO32−] and thus the level of saturation. Reduced saturation states are expected to affect marine calcifiers even though it has been estimated that all surface waters will remain saturated for centuries. Here we show, however, that some surface waters will become undersaturated within decades. When atmospheric CO2 reaches 550 ppmv, in year 2050 under the IS92a business-as-usual scenario, Southern Ocean surface waters begin to become undersaturated with respect to aragonite, a metastable form of CaCO3. By 2100 as atmospheric CO2 reaches 788 ppmv, undersaturation extends throughout the entire Southern Ocean (< 60°S) and into the subarctic Pacific. These changes will threaten high-latitude aragonite secreting organisms including cold-water corals, which provide essential fish habitat, and shelled pteropods, an abundant food source for marine predators.
Inverse estimates of the oceanic sources and sinks of natural CO2 and the implied oceanic carbon transport

(American Geophysical Union, 2007-02-10) Mikaloff Fletcher, Sara E. ; Gruber, Nicolas ; Jacobson, Andrew R. ; Gloor, Emanuel ; Doney, Scott C. ; Dutkiewicz, Stephanie ; Gerber, Markus ; Follows, Michael J. ; Joos, Fortunat ; Lindsay, Keith ; Menemenlis, Dimitris ; Mouchet, Anne ; Muller, Simon A. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L.

We use an inverse method to estimate the global-scale pattern of the air-sea flux of natural CO2, i.e., the component of the CO2 flux due to the natural carbon cycle that already existed in preindustrial times, on the basis of ocean interior observations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and other tracers, from which we estimate ΔC gasex , i.e., the component of the observed DIC that is due to the gas exchange of natural CO2. We employ a suite of 10 different Ocean General Circulation Models (OGCMs) to quantify the error arising from uncertainties in the modeled transport required to link the interior ocean observations to the surface fluxes. The results from the contributing OGCMs are weighted using a model skill score based on a comparison of each model's simulated natural radiocarbon with observations. We find a pattern of air-sea flux of natural CO2 characterized by outgassing in the Southern Ocean between 44°S and 59°S, vigorous uptake at midlatitudes of both hemispheres, and strong outgassing in the tropics. In the Northern Hemisphere and the tropics, the inverse estimates generally agree closely with the natural CO2 flux results from forward simulations of coupled OGCM-biogeochemistry models undertaken as part of the second phase of the Ocean Carbon Model Intercomparison Project (OCMIP-2). The OCMIP-2 simulations find far less air-sea exchange than the inversion south of 20°S, but more recent forward OGCM studies are in better agreement with the inverse estimates in the Southern Hemisphere. The strong source and sink pattern south of 20°S was not apparent in an earlier inversion study, because the choice of region boundaries led to a partial cancellation of the sources and sinks. We show that the inversely estimated flux pattern is clearly traceable to gradients in the observed ΔC gasex , and that it is relatively insensitive to the choice of OGCM or potential biases in ΔC gasex . Our inverse estimates imply a southward interhemispheric transport of 0.31 ± 0.02 Pg C yr−1, most of which occurs in the Atlantic. This is considerably smaller than the 1 Pg C yr−1 of Northern Hemisphere uptake that has been inferred from atmospheric CO2 observations during the 1980s and 1990s, which supports the hypothesis of a Northern Hemisphere terrestrial sink.
Factors challenging our ability to detect long-term trends in ocean chlorophyll

(Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2013-04-23) Beaulieu, C. ; Henson, Stephanie A. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Dunne, John P. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Rykaczewski, Ryan R. ; Bopp, Laurent

Global climate change is expected to affect the ocean's biological productivity. The most comprehensive information available about the global distribution of contemporary ocean primary productivity is derived from satellite data. Large spatial patchiness and interannual to multidecadal variability in chlorophyll a concentration challenges efforts to distinguish a global, secular trend given satellite records which are limited in duration and continuity. The longest ocean color satellite record comes from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), which failed in December 2010. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) ocean color sensors are beyond their originally planned operational lifetime. Successful retrieval of a quality signal from the current Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument, or successful launch of the Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI) expected in 2014 will hopefully extend the ocean color time series and increase the potential for detecting trends in ocean productivity in the future. Alternatively, a potential discontinuity in the time series of ocean chlorophyll a, introduced by a change of instrument without overlap and opportunity for cross-calibration, would make trend detection even more challenging. In this paper, we demonstrate that there are a few regions with statistically significant trends over the ten years of SeaWiFS data, but at a global scale the trend is not large enough to be distinguished from noise. We quantify the degree to which red noise (autocorrelation) especially challenges trend detection in these observational time series. We further demonstrate how discontinuities in the time series at various points would affect our ability to detect trends in ocean chlorophyll a. We highlight the importance of maintaining continuous, climate-quality satellite data records for climate-change detection and attribution studies.
Evaluation of ocean carbon cycle models with data-based metrics

(American Geophysical Union, 2004-04-02) Matsumoto, K. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Key, Robert M. ; Aumont, Olivier ; Bullister, John L. ; Caldeira, Ken ; Campin, J.-M. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Drange, Helge ; Dutay, J.-C. ; Follows, Michael J. ; Gao, Y. ; Gnanadesikan, Anand ; Gruber, Nicolas ; Ishida, Akio ; Joos, Fortunat ; Lindsay, Keith ; Maier-Reimer, Ernst ; Marshall, John C. ; Matear, Richard J. ; Monfray, Patrick ; Mouchet, Anne ; Najjar, Raymond G. ; Plattner, Gian-Kasper ; Schlitzer, Reiner ; Slater, Richard D. ; Swathi, P. S. ; Totterdell, Ian J. ; Weirig, Marie-France ; Yamanaka, Yasuhiro ; Yool, Andrew ; Orr, James C.

New radiocarbon and chlorofluorocarbon-11 data from the World Ocean Circulation Experiment are used to assess a suite of 19 ocean carbon cycle models. We use the distributions and inventories of these tracers as quantitative metrics of model skill and find that only about a quarter of the suite is consistent with the new data-based metrics. This should serve as a warning bell to the larger community that not all is well with current generation of ocean carbon cycle models. At the same time, this highlights the danger in simply using the available models to represent the state-of-the-art modeling without considering the credibility of each model.
Evaluating global ocean carbon models : the importance of realistic physics

(American Geophysical Union, 2004-09-15) Doney, Scott C. ; Lindsay, Keith ; Caldeira, Ken ; Campin, J.-M. ; Drange, Helge ; Dutay, J.-C. ; Follows, Michael J. ; Gao, Y. ; Gnanadesikan, Anand ; Gruber, Nicolas ; Ishida, Akio ; Joos, Fortunat ; Madec, G. ; Maier-Reimer, Ernst ; Marshall, John C. ; Matear, Richard J. ; Monfray, Patrick ; Mouchet, Anne ; Najjar, Raymond G. ; Orr, James C. ; Plattner, Gian-Kasper ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Schlitzer, Reiner ; Slater, Richard D. ; Totterdell, Ian J. ; Weirig, Marie-France ; Yamanaka, Yasuhiro ; Yool, Andrew

A suite of standard ocean hydrographic and circulation metrics are applied to the equilibrium physical solutions from 13 global carbon models participating in phase 2 of the Ocean Carbon-cycle Model Intercomparison Project (OCMIP-2). Model-data comparisons are presented for sea surface temperature and salinity, seasonal mixed layer depth, meridional heat and freshwater transport, 3-D hydrographic fields, and meridional overturning. Considerable variation exists among the OCMIP-2 simulations, with some of the solutions falling noticeably outside available observational constraints. For some cases, model-model and model-data differences can be related to variations in surface forcing, subgrid-scale parameterizations, and model architecture. These errors in the physical metrics point to significant problems in the underlying model representations of ocean transport and dynamics, problems that directly affect the OCMIP predicted ocean tracer and carbon cycle variables (e.g., air-sea CO2 flux, chlorofluorocarbon and anthropogenic CO2 uptake, and export production). A substantial fraction of the large model-model ranges in OCMIP-2 biogeochemical fields (±25–40%) represents the propagation of known errors in model physics. Therefore the model-model spread likely overstates the uncertainty in our current understanding of the ocean carbon system, particularly for transport-dominated fields such as the historical uptake of anthropogenic CO2. A full error assessment, however, would need to account for additional sources of uncertainty such as more complex biological-chemical-physical interactions, biases arising from poorly resolved or neglected physical processes, and climate change.
Spiraling pathways of global deep waters to the surface of the Southern Ocean

(Nature Publishing Group, 2017-08-02) Tamsitt, Veronica ; Drake, Henri F. ; Morrison, Adele K. ; Talley, Lynne D. ; Dufour, Carolina O. ; Gray, Alison R. ; Griffies, Stephen M. ; Mazloff, Matthew R. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Wang, Jinbo ; Weijer, Wilbert

Upwelling of global deep waters to the sea surface in the Southern Ocean closes the global overturning circulation and is fundamentally important for oceanic uptake of carbon and heat, nutrient resupply for sustaining oceanic biological production, and the melt rate of ice shelves. However, the exact pathways and role of topography in Southern Ocean upwelling remain largely unknown. Here we show detailed upwelling pathways in three dimensions, using hydrographic observations and particle tracking in high-resolution models. The analysis reveals that the northern-sourced deep waters enter the Antarctic Circumpolar Current via southward flow along the boundaries of the three ocean basins, before spiraling southeastward and upward through the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Upwelling is greatly enhanced at five major topographic features, associated with vigorous mesoscale eddy activity. Deep water reaches the upper ocean predominantly south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, with a spatially nonuniform distribution. The timescale for half of the deep water to upwell from 30° S to the mixed layer is ~60–90 years.
Using altimetry to help explain patchy changes in hydrographic carbon measurements

(American Geophysical Union, 2009-09-18) Rodgers, Keith B. ; Key, Robert M. ; Gnanadesikan, Anand ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Aumont, Olivier ; Bopp, Laurent ; Doney, Scott C. ; Dunne, John P. ; Glover, David M. ; Ishida, Akio ; Ishii, Masao ; Jacobson, Andrew R. ; Monaco, Claire Lo ; Maier-Reimer, Ernst ; Mercier, Herlé ; Metzl, Nicolas ; Perez, Fiz F. ; Rios, Aida F. ; Wanninkhof, Rik ; Wetzel, Patrick ; Winn, Christopher D. ; Yamanaka, Yasuhiro

Here we use observations and ocean models to identify mechanisms driving large seasonal to interannual variations in dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and dissolved oxygen (O2) in the upper ocean. We begin with observations linking variations in upper ocean DIC and O2 inventories with changes in the physical state of the ocean. Models are subsequently used to address the extent to which the relationships derived from short-timescale (6 months to 2 years) repeat measurements are representative of variations over larger spatial and temporal scales. The main new result is that convergence and divergence (column stretching) attributed to baroclinic Rossby waves can make a first-order contribution to DIC and O2 variability in the upper ocean. This results in a close correspondence between natural variations in DIC and O2 column inventory variations and sea surface height (SSH) variations over much of the ocean. Oceanic Rossby wave activity is an intrinsic part of the natural variability in the climate system and is elevated even in the absence of significant interannual variability in climate mode indices. The close correspondence between SSH and both DIC and O2 column inventories for many regions suggests that SSH changes (inferred from satellite altimetry) may prove useful in reducing uncertainty in separating natural and anthropogenic DIC signals (using measurements from Climate Variability and Predictability's CO2/Repeat Hydrography program).
Regional to global assessments of phytoplankton dynamics from the SeaWiFS mission

(Elsevier, 2013-04-20) Siegel, David A. ; Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Maritorena, S. ; McClain, Charles R. ; Antoine, David ; Bailey, S. W. ; Bontempi, P. S. ; Boss, Emmanuel S. ; Dierssen, Heidi M. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Eplee, R. E. ; Evans, R. H. ; Feldman, G. C. ; Fields, Erik ; Franz, Bryan A. ; Kuring, N. A. ; Mengelt, C. ; Nelson, Norman B. ; Patt, F. S. ; Robinson, W. D. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Swan, C. M. ; Werdell, P. J. ; Westberry, Toby K. ; Wilding, J. G. ; Yoder, James A.

Photosynthetic production of organic matter by microscopic oceanic phytoplankton fuels ocean ecosystems and contributes roughly half of the Earth's net primary production. For 13 years, the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) mission provided the first consistent, synoptic observations of global ocean ecosystems. Changes in the surface chlorophyll concentration, the primary biological property retrieved from SeaWiFS, have traditionally been used as a metric for phytoplankton abundance and its distribution largely reflects patterns in vertical nutrient transport. On regional to global scales, chlorophyll concentrations covary with sea surface temperature (SST) because SST changes reflect light and nutrient conditions. However, the ocean may be too complex to be well characterized using a single index such as the chlorophyll concentration. A semi-analytical bio-optical algorithm is used to help interpret regional to global SeaWiFS chlorophyll observations from using three independent, well-validated ocean color data products; the chlorophyll a concentration, absorption by CDM and particulate backscattering. First, we show that observed long-term, global-scale trends in standard chlorophyll retrievals are likely compromised by coincident changes in CDM. Second, we partition the chlorophyll signal into a component due to phytoplankton biomass changes and a component caused by physiological adjustments in intracellular chlorophyll concentrations to changes in mixed layer light levels. We show that biomass changes dominate chlorophyll signals for the high latitude seas and where persistent vertical upwelling is known to occur, while physiological processes dominate chlorophyll variability over much of the tropical and subtropical oceans. The SeaWiFS data set demonstrates complexity in the interpretation of changes in regional to global phytoplankton distributions and illustrates limitations for the assessment of phytoplankton dynamics using chlorophyll retrievals alone.
Building a Community of Biogeochemistry Float Data Users: an OCB and US CLIVAR Report

(Woods Hole Oceangraphic Institution, 2023-04-04) Riser, Stephen C. ; Fassbender, Andrea J. ; Johnson, Kenneth S. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Talley, Lynne D. ; Wijffels, Susan E. ; Hotinski, Roberta ; Gray, Alison R. ; Takeshita, Yuichiro ; Nicholson, David P. ; Purkey, Sarah G. ; Martz, Todd R. ; Matsumoto, George I. ; Cullen, Heidi

The Global Ocean Biogeochemistry (GO-BGC) array is a 5-year effort funded by the US National Science Foundation to produce and deploy 500 profiling floats equipped with biogeochemical sensors in the world ocean. Deployments began in the first quarter of 2021. To inform and engage a broad oceanographic user community, the Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry (OCB) and the US Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) Programs worked with GO-BGC leadership to host a virtual GO-BGC Scientific Workshop from June 28-30, 2021. The objectives of the workshop were to: • Introduce the GO-BGC plan to the global scientific community • Discuss and innovate on scientific applications of GO-BGC data • Provide background information on the flow of data and archiving • Deliver hands-on tutorials and computer code for accessing GO-BGC data Presentations and discussions were scheduled for 3-4 hours on each day using the Zoom platform. Some pre-recorded presentations were available online prior to each day’s events, so that participants could consider discussion items before the meeting. A Slack channel was also created prior to the meeting so that participants could communicate with organizers, presenters, and other attendees during the event.

Sarmiento Jorge L.

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