Saturation of the Southern Ocean CO 2 Sink Due to Recent Climate Change
Top Cited Papers
- 22 June 2007
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 316 (5832), 1735-1738
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1136188
Abstract
Based on observed atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) concentration and an inverse method, we estimate that the Southern Ocean sink of CO 2 has weakened between 1981 and 2004 by 0.08 petagrams of carbon per year per decade relative to the trend expected from the large increase in atmospheric CO 2 . We attribute this weakening to the observed increase in Southern Ocean winds resulting from human activities, which is projected to continue in the future. Consequences include a reduction of the efficiency of the Southern Ocean sink of CO 2 in the short term (about 25 years) and possibly a higher level of stabilization of atmospheric CO 2 on a multicentury time scale.Keywords
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