Variable particle size distributions reduce the sensitivity of global export flux to climate change

Leung, Shirley W.; Weber, Thomas; Cram, Jacob A.; Deutsch, Curtis

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-229-2021

Articles | Volume 18, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-229-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-229-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 1

Research article

|

14 Jan 2021

Research article |

| 14 Jan 2021

Variable particle size distributions reduce the sensitivity of global export flux to climate change

Shirley W. Leung, Thomas Weber, Jacob A. Cram, and Curtis Deutsch

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-229-2021-supplement

Data sets

Variable parti- cle size distributions reduce the sensitivity of global export flux to climate change S. Leung https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3785724

Model code and software

Variable parti- cle size distributions reduce the sensitivity of global export flux to climate change S. Leung https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4117382

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Short summary

A global model is constrained with empirical relationships to quantify how shifts in sinking-particle sizes modulate particulate organic carbon export production changes in a warming ocean. Including the effect of dynamic particle sizes on remineralization reduces the magnitude of predicted 100-year changes in export production by ~14 %. Projections of future export could thus be improved by considering dynamic phytoplankton and particle-size-dependent remineralization depths.