Increase of dissolved inorganic carbon and decrease in pH in near-surface waters in the Mediterranean Sea during the past two decades

Merlivat, Liliane; Boutin, Jacqueline; Antoine, David; Beaumont, Laurence; Golbol, Melek; Vellucci, Vincenzo

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-5653-2018

Articles | Volume 15, issue 18

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-5653-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-5653-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 18

Research article

|

21 Sep 2018

Research article |

| 21 Sep 2018

Increase of dissolved inorganic carbon and decrease in pH in near-surface waters in the Mediterranean Sea during the past two decades

Liliane Merlivat, Jacqueline Boutin, David Antoine, Laurence Beaumont, Melek Golbol, and Vincenzo Vellucci

Data sets

A multi-decade record of high-quality fCO2 data in version 3 of the Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) D. C. E. Bakker, B. Pfeil, C. S. Landa, N. Metzl, K. M. O'Brien, A. Olsen, K. Smith, C. Cosca, S. Harasawa, S. D. Jones, S.-I. Nakaoka, Y. Nojiri, U. Schuster, T. Steinhoff, C. Sweeney, T. Takahashi, B. Tilbrook, C. Wada, R. Wanninkhof, S. R. Alin, C. F. Balestrini, L. Barbero, N. R. Bates, A. A. Bianchi, F. Bonou, J. Boutin, Y. Bozec, E. F. Burger, W.-J. Cai, R. D. Castle, L. Chen, M. Chierici, K. Currie, W. Evans, C. Featherstone, R. A. Feely, A. Fransson, C. Goyet, N. Greenwood, L. Gregor, S. Hankin, N. J. Hardman-Mountford, J. Harlay, J. Hauck, M. Hoppema, M. P. Humphreys, C. W. Hunt, B. Huss, J., S. P. Ibánhez, T. Johannessen, R. Keeling, V. Kitidis, A. Körtzinger, A. Kozyr, E. Krasakopoulou, A. Kuwata, P. Landschützer, S. K. Lauvset, N. Lefèvre, C. Lo Monaco, A. Manke, J. T. Mathis, L. Merlivat, F. J. Millero, P. M. S. Monteiro, D. R. Munro, A. Murata, T. Newberger, A. M. Omar, T. Ono, K. Paterson, D. Pearce, D. Pierrot, L. L. Robbins, S. Saito, J. Salisbury, R. Schlitzer, B. Schneider, R. Schweitzer, R. Sieger, I. Skjelvan, K. F. Sullivan, S. C. Sutherland, A. J. Sutton, K. Tadokoro, M. Telszewski, M. Tuma, S. M. A. C. van Heuven, D. Vandemark, B. Ward, A. J. Watson, and S. Xu https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-8-383-2016

Mediterranean Sea surface CO2 partial pressure and temperature data L. Merlivat and J. Boutin https://doi.org/10.17882/56709

Short summary

The fugacity of carbon dioxide in seawater (fCO₂) was measured hourly in the surface waters of the NW Mediterranean Sea during two 3-year sequences separated by 18 years. A decrease of pH of 0.0022 yr⁻¹ was computed. About 85 % of the accumulation of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) comes from chemical equilibration with increasing atmospheric CO₂; the remaining 15 % accumulation is consistent with estimates of transfer of Atlantic waters through the Gibraltar Strait.