Sea ice suppression of CO2 outgassing in the West Antarctic Peninsula: implications for the evolving Southern Ocean carbon sink
The Southern Ocean plays an important role in the uptake of atmospheric CO2. In seasonally ice-covered regions, estimates of air-sea exchange remain uncertain in part because of a lack of observations outside the summer season. Here we present new estimates of air-sea CO2 flux in the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) from an autonomous mooring on the continental shelf. In summer, the WAP is a sink for atmospheric CO2 followed by a slow return to atmospheric equilibrium in autumn and winter. Outgassing is almost entirely suppressed by ice cover from June through October, resulting in a modest net annual CO2 sink. Model projections indicate sea ice formation will occur later in the season in the coming decades potentially weakening the net oceanic CO2 sink. Interannual variability in the WAP is significant, highlighting the importance of sustained observations of air-sea exchange in this rapidly changing region of the Southern Ocean.
History
Publication title
Geophysical Research LettersVolume
48Issue
11Article number
e2020GL091835Number
e2020GL091835Pagination
1-10ISSN
0094-8276Department/School
Institute for Marine and Antarctic StudiesPublisher
Amer Geophysical UnionPlace of publication
2000 Florida Ave Nw, Washington, USA, Dc, 20009Rights statement
©2021. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License, (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.Repository Status
- Open