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| Titel |
Coccolithophore surface distributions in the North Atlantic and their modulation of the air-sea flux of CO2 from 10 years of satellite Earth observation data |
| VerfasserIn |
J. D. Shutler, P. E. Land, C. W. Brown, H. S. Findlay, C. J. Donlon, M. Medland, R. Snooke, J. C. Blackford |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1726-4170
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Biogeosciences ; 10, no. 4 ; Nr. 10, no. 4 (2013-04-23), S.2699-2709 |
| Datensatznummer |
250018214
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/bg-10-2699-2013.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Coccolithophores are the primary oceanic phytoplankton responsible for the
production of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). These climatically important
plankton play a key role in the oceanic carbon cycle as a major
contributor of carbon to the open ocean carbonate pump (~50%) and their calcification can affect the atmosphere-to-ocean (air-sea)
uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) through increasing the seawater partial
pressure of CO2 (pCO2). Here we document variations in the
areal extent of surface blooms of the globally important coccolithophore,
Emiliania huxleyi, in the North Atlantic over a 10-year period (1998–2007), using Earth
observation data from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS).
We calculate the annual mean sea surface areal coverage of E. huxleyi in the North
Atlantic to be 474 000 ± 104 000 km2, which results in a net
CaCO3 carbon (CaCO3-C) production of 0.14–1.71 Tg CaCO3-C per year. However, this surface coverage (and, thus, net
production) can fluctuate inter-annually by −54/+8% about the mean
value and is strongly correlated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation
(ENSO) climate oscillation index (r=0.75, p<0.02). Our analysis
evaluates the spatial extent over which the E. huxleyi blooms in the North Atlantic
can increase the pCO2 and, thus, decrease the localised air-sea flux of
atmospheric CO2. In regions where the blooms are prevalent, the average
reduction in the monthly air-sea CO2 flux can reach 55%. The maximum
reduction of the monthly air-sea CO2 flux in the time series is
155%. This work suggests that the high variability, frequency and
distribution of these calcifying plankton and their impact on pCO2
should be considered if we are to fully understand the variability of the
North Atlantic air-to-sea flux of CO2. We estimate that these blooms
can reduce the annual N. Atlantic net sink atmospheric CO2 by between 3–28%. |
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