Articles | Volume 19, issue 18
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4431-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-4431-2022
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
15 Sep 2022
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 15 Sep 2022

Observation-constrained estimates of the global ocean carbon sink from Earth system models

Jens Terhaar, Thomas L. Frölicher, and Fortunat Joos

Related authors

Southern Ocean phytoplankton under climate change: a shifting balance of bottom-up and top-down control
Tianfei Xue, Jens Terhaar, A. E. Friederike Prowe, Thomas L. Frölicher, Andreas Oschlies, and Ivy Frenger
Biogeosciences, 21, 2473–2491, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2473-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2473-2024, 2024
Short summary
Drivers of decadal trends of the ocean carbon sink in the past, present, and future in Earth system models
Jens Terhaar
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-773,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-773, 2024
Short summary
AERA-MIP: Emission pathways, remaining budgets and carbon cycle dynamics compatible with 1.5 ºC and 2 ºC global warming stabilization
Yona Silvy, Thomas L. Frölicher, Jens Terhaar, Fortunat Joos, Friedrich A. Burger, Fabrice Lacroix, Myles Allen, Raffaele Bernadello, Laurent Bopp, Victor Brovkin, Jonathan R. Buzan, Patricia Cadule, Martin Dix, John Dunne, Pierre Friedlingstein, Goran Georgievski, Tomohiro Hajima, Stuart Jenkins, Michio Kawamiya, Nancy Y. Kiang, Vladimir Lapin, Donghyun Lee, Paul Lerner, Nadine Mengis, Estela A. Monteiro, David Paynter, Glen P. Peters, Anastasia Romanou, Jörg Schwinger, Sarah Sparrow, Eric Stofferahn, Jerry Tjiputra, Etienne Tourigny, and Tilo Ziehn
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-488,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-488, 2024
Short summary
Arctic Ocean acidification over the 21st century co-driven by anthropogenic carbon increases and freshening in the CMIP6 model ensemble
Jens Terhaar, Olivier Torres, Timothée Bourgeois, and Lester Kwiatkowski
Biogeosciences, 18, 2221–2240, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-2221-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-2221-2021, 2021
Short summary
Model constraints on the anthropogenic carbon budget of the Arctic Ocean
Jens Terhaar, James C. Orr, Marion Gehlen, Christian Ethé, and Laurent Bopp
Biogeosciences, 16, 2343–2367, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2343-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-2343-2019, 2019
Short summary

Related subject area

Biogeochemistry: Open Ocean
Assessing the impact of CO2-equilibrated ocean alkalinity enhancement on microbial metabolic rates in an oligotrophic system
Laura Marín-Samper, Javier Arístegui, Nauzet Hernández-Hernández, Joaquín Ortiz, Stephen D. Archer, Andrea Ludwig, and Ulf Riebesell
Biogeosciences, 21, 2859–2876, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2859-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2859-2024, 2024
Short summary
Phosphomonoesterase and phosphodiesterase activities in the eastern Mediterranean in two contrasting seasonal situations
France Van Wambeke, Pascal Conan, Mireille Pujo-Pay, Vincent Taillandier, Olivier Crispi, Alexandra Pavlidou, Sandra Nunige, Morgane Didry, Christophe Salmeron, and Elvira Pulido-Villena
Biogeosciences, 21, 2621–2640, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2621-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2621-2024, 2024
Short summary
Net primary production annual maxima in the North Atlantic projected to shift in the 21st century
Jenny Hieronymus, Magnus Hieronymus, Matthias Gröger, Jörg Schwinger, Raffaele Bernadello, Etienne Tourigny, Valentina Sicardi, Itzel Ruvalcaba Baroni, and Klaus Wyser
Biogeosciences, 21, 2189–2206, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2189-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2189-2024, 2024
Short summary
Testing the influence of light on nitrite cycling in the eastern tropical North Pacific
Nicole M. Travis, Colette L. Kelly, and Karen L. Casciotti
Biogeosciences, 21, 1985–2004, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1985-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1985-2024, 2024
Short summary
Loss of nitrogen via anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) in the California Current system during the late Quaternary
Zoë Rebecca van Kemenade, Zeynep Erdem, Ellen Christine Hopmans, Jaap Smede Sinninghe Damsté, and Darci Rush
Biogeosciences, 21, 1517–1532, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1517-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-1517-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Aumont, O., Orr, J. C., Monfray, P., Ludwig, W., Amiotte-Suchet, P., and Probst, J.-L.: Riverine-driven interhemispheric transport of carbon, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 15, 393–405, https://doi.org/10.1029/1999GB001238, 2001. 
Bakker, P., Schmittner, A., Lenaerts, J. T. M., Abe-Ouchi, A., Bi, D., van den Broeke, M. R., Chan, W.-L., Hu, A., Beadling, R. L., Marsland, S. J., Mernild, S. H., Saenko, O. A., Swingedouw, D., Sullivan, A., and Yin, J.: Fate of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: Strong decline under continued warming and Greenland melting, Geophys. Res. Lett., 43, 12252–12260, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL070457, 2016. 
Bednaršek, N., Tarling, G. A., Bakker, D. C. E., Fielding, S., and Feely, R. A.: Dissolution Dominating Calcification Process in Polar Pteropods Close to the Point of Aragonite Undersaturation, PLoS One, 9, e109183, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109183, 2014. 
Behrenfeld, M. J., Gaube, P., Della Penna, A., O'Malley, R. T., Burt, W. J., Hu, Y., Bontempi, P. S., Steinberg, D. K., Boss, E. S., Siegel, D. A., Hostetler, C. A., Tortell, P. D., and Doney, S. C.: Global satellite-observed daily vertical migrations of ocean animals, Nature, 576, 257–261, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1796-9, 2019. 
Download
Co-editor-in-chief
Accurate constraining the ocean carbon sink is of utmost importance to improve our understanding of the fate of anthropogenic carbon and to better project anthropogenic carbon uptake in the coming decades. This study combines the outcomes of a suite of earth-system models with three well-documented observations (sea surface salinity in the Southern Ocean, strength of Atlantic Overturning and Revelle factor) to reduce bias and uncertainty in the global ocean carbon sink. The results suggest that the ocean carbon sink is about 10% larger than estimated before. This has implications for the global carbon budget.
Short summary
Estimates of the ocean sink of anthropogenic carbon vary across various approaches. We show that the global ocean carbon sink can be estimated by three parameters, two of which approximate the ocean ventilation in the Southern Ocean and the North Atlantic, and one of which approximates the chemical capacity of the ocean to take up carbon. With observations of these parameters, we estimate that the global ocean carbon sink is 10 % larger than previously assumed, and we cut uncertainties in half.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint