Changes in the arctic ocean carbon cycle with diminishing ice cover
Date
2020-05-24Metadata
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https://hdl.handle.net/1912/26086As published
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088051DOI
10.1029/2020GL088051Keyword
Arctic Ocean; ice concentration; seawater CO2; interannual variability; Canada Basin; shipboard CO2 measurementsAbstract
Less than three decades ago only a small fraction of the Arctic Ocean (AO) was ice free and then only for short periods. The ice cover kept sea surface pCO2 at levels lower relative to other ocean basins that have been exposed year round to ever increasing atmospheric levels. In this study, we evaluate sea surface pCO2 measurements collected over a 6‐year period along a fixed cruise track in the Canada Basin. The measurements show that mean pCO2 levels are significantly higher during low ice years. The pCO2 increase is likely driven by ocean surface heating and uptake of atmospheric CO2 with large interannual variability in the contributions of these processes. These findings suggest that increased ice‐free periods will further increase sea surface pCO2, reducing the Canada Basin's current role as a net sink of atmospheric CO2.
Description
© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in DeGrandpre, M., Evans, W., Timmermans, M., Krishfield, R., Williams, B., & Steele, M. Changes in the arctic ocean carbon cycle with diminishing ice cover. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(12), (2020): e2020GL088051, doi:10.1029/2020GL088051.
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Suggested Citation
DeGrandpre, M., Evans, W., Timmermans, M., Krishfield, R., Williams, B., & Steele, M. (2020). Changes in the arctic ocean carbon cycle with diminishing ice cover. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(12), e2020GL088051.The following license files are associated with this item:
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution 4.0 International
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