Oxygen budget of the north-western Mediterranean deep- convection region

Ulses, Caroline; Estournel, Claude; Fourrier, Marine; Coppola, Laurent; Kessouri, Fayçal; Lefèvre, Dominique; Marsaleix, Patrick

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-937-2021

Articles | Volume 18, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-937-2021

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

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-937-2021

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

Articles | Volume 18, issue 3

Research article

|

10 Feb 2021

Research article |

| 10 Feb 2021

Oxygen budget of the north-western Mediterranean deep- convection region

Caroline Ulses, Claude Estournel, Marine Fourrier, Laurent Coppola, Fayçal Kessouri, Dominique Lefèvre, and Patrick Marsaleix

Data sets

Argo float data and metadata from Global Data Assembly Centre (Argo GDAC) Argo https://doi.org/10.17882/42182

MOOSE-GE 2013 cruise, RV Tethys II P. Testor et al. https://doi.org/10.17600/13450110

DEWEX-MERMEX 2013 LEG2 cruise, RV Le Suroit P. Conan https://doi.org/10.17600/13020030

DEWEX-MERMEX 2013 LEG1 cruise, RV Le Suroit P. Testor https://doi.org/10.17600/13020010

Short summary

We analyse the seasonal cycle of O₂ and estimate an annual O₂ budget in the north-western Mediterranean deep-convection region, using a numerical model. We show that this region acts as a large sink of atmospheric O₂ and as a major source of O₂ for the western Mediterranean Sea. The decrease in the deep convection intensity predicted in recent projections may have important consequences on the overall uptake of O₂ in the Mediterranean Sea and on the O₂ exchanges with the Atlantic Ocean.