We have compared simulations of anthropogenic CO2 in the four three-dimensional ocean models that participated in the first phase of the Ocean Carbon-Cycle Model Intercomparison Project (OCMIP), as a means to identify their major differences. Simulated global uptake agrees to within ±19%, giving a range of 1.85±0.35 Pg C yr−1 for the 1980–1989 average. Regionally, the Southern Ocean dominates the present-day air-sea flux of anthropogenic CO2 in all models, with one third to one half of the global uptake occurring south of 30°S. The highest simulated total uptake in the Southern Ocean was 70% larger than the lowest. Comparison with recent data-based estimates of anthropogenic CO2 suggest that most of the models substantially overestimate storage in the Southern Ocean; elsewhere they generally underestimate storage by less than 20%. Globally, the OCMIP models appear to bracket the real ocean's present uptake, based on comparison of regional data-based estimates of anthropogenic CO2 and bomb 14C. Column inventories of bomb 14C have become more similar to those for anthropogenic CO2 with the time that has elapsed between the Geochemical Ocean Sections Study (1970s) and World Ocean Circulation Experiment (1990s) global sampling campaigns. Our ability to evaluate simulated anthropogenic CO2 would improve if systematic errors associated with the data-based estimates could be provided regionally.

/pdf/estimates-of-anthropogenic-carbon-uptake-from-four-three-20nhwjfwmd.pdf

Estimates of anthropogenic carbon uptake from four three‐dimensional global ocean models

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00452417/document

δ13C variation in scallop shells: Increasing metabolic carbon contribution with body size?

The 1 4 C ages of planktonic foraminifers Globigerinoides sacculifer bracketing the Younger Dryas in a δ 1 8 O record of Globigerinoides ruber from a laminated sediment core on the Pakistani continental margin suggest thatsurface reservoir ages in the Arabian Sea were in excess of 1000 years during the deglaciation. A least squares error fit of a detailed 1 4 C chronology to the (atmospheric) tree ring record gave variable early Holocene reservoir ages between 780 and 1120 years, well above the prebomb value of 640 years. Mid-Holocene reservoir ages are less well constrained but were probably closer to the prebomb value. The method used to fit individual core sections to the tree ring record was designed to require only a rough a priori estimate of the time spans, which in the core presented here were taken from each section's range of 1 4 C ages. A significant 220-year quasi-oscillation was present in the δ 1 8 O record during the early Holocene but not thereafter. This frequency and amplitude pattern resembles an early Holocene 207- to 227-year oscillation previously observed in the atmospheric 1 4 C record, which is generally interpreted as reflecting solar irradiance variability. An early Holocene climate event at 8150-8400 calendar years B.P. observed elsewhere within the Asian-East African monsoon system was again found in our record, suggesting a reduction in precipitation over NW India and Pakistan.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2000PA000608

South Asian monsoon climate change and radiocarbon in the Arabian Sea during early and middle Holocene

The Weddell Gyre (WG) is one of the main oceanographic features of the Southern Ocean south of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which plays an influential role in global ocean circulation as well as gas exchange with the atmosphere. We review the state‐of‐the art knowledge concerning the WG from an interdisciplinary perspective, uncovering critical aspects needed to understand this system's role in shaping the future evolution of oceanic heat and carbon uptake over the next decades. The main limitations in our knowledge are related to the conditions in this extreme and remote environment, where the polar night, very low air temperatures and presence of sea ice year‐round hamper field and remotely sensed measurements. We highlight the importance of winter and under‐ice conditions in the southern WG, the role that new technology will play to overcome present‐day sampling limitations, the importance of the WG connectivity to the low‐latitude oceans and atmosphere, and the expected intensification of the WG circulation as the westerly winds intensify. Greater international cooperation is needed to define key sampling locations that can be visited by any research vessel in the region. Existing transects sampled since the 1980s along the Prime Meridian and along an East‐West section at ~62°S should be maintained with regularity to provide answers to the relevant questions. This approach will provide long‐term data to determine trends and will improve representation of processes for regional, Antarctic‐wide and global modeling efforts – thereby enhancing predictions of the WG in global ocean circulation and climate.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2018RG000604

The Weddell Gyre, Southern Ocean: Present Knowledge and Future Challenges

[1] The injection of radiocarbon (14C) into the atmosphere by nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 1960s has provided a powerful tracer to investigate ocean physical and chemical processes. While the oceanic uptake of bomb-derived 14C was primarily controlled by air-sea exchange in the early decades after the bomb spike, we demonstrate that changes in oceanic 14C are now primarily controlled by shallow-to-deep ocean exchange, i.e., the same mechanism that governs anthropogenic CO2 uptake. This is a result of accumulated bomb 14C uptake that has rapidly decreased the air-sea gradient of 14C/C (Δ14C) and shifted the main reservoir of bomb 14C from the atmosphere to the upper ocean. The air-sea Δ14C gradient, reduced further by fossil fuel dilution, is now weaker than before weapons testing in most regions. Oceanic 14C, and particularly its temporal change, can now be used to study the oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO2. We examine observed changes in oceanic Δ14C between the WOCE/SAVE (1988–1995) and the CLIVAR (2001–2007) eras and simulations with two ocean general circulation models, the Community Climate System Model (CCSM) and the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean Model (ECCO). Observed oceanic Δ14C and its changes between the 1980s–90s and 2000s indicate that shallow-to-deep exchange is too efficient in ECCO and too sluggish in CCSM. These findings suggest that mean global oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO2 between 1990 and 2007 is bounded by the ECCO-based estimate of 2.3 Pg C yr−1 and the CCSM-based estimate of 1.7 Pg C yr−1.

http://bluemoon.ucsd.edu/publications/heather/Graven_OceanC14_JGR12.pdf

Changing controls on oceanic radiocarbon: New insights on shallow‐to‐deep ocean exchange and anthropogenic CO2 uptake

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon measurements were made on 120 samples collected between Antarctica and South Africa along 30°E during the WOCE-France CIVA 1 campaign in February 1993. Our principal objective was to complement the Southern Ocean's sparse existing data set in order to improve the 14C benchmark used for validating ocean carbon-cycle models, which disagree considerably in this region. Measured 14C is consistent with the 0-S characteristics of CIVA1. Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) forming north of the Polar Front (PF) is rich in'4C, whereas surface waters south of the PF are depleted in 14C. A distinct old 14C signal was found for the contribution of the Pacific Deep Water (PDW) to the return flow of Circumpolar Deep Waters (CDW). Comparison to previous measurements shows a 4C decrease in surface waters, consistent with northward displacement of surface waters, replacement by old deep waters upwelled at the Antarctic Divergence, and atmospheric decline in 14C. Conversely, an increase was found in deeper layers, in the AAIW. Large uncertainties, associated with previous methods for separating natural and bomb 14C when in the Southern Ocean south of 45°S, motivated us to develop a new approach that relies on a simple mixing model and on chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) measurements also taken during CIVA1. This approach leads to inventories for CIVA1 that are equal to or higher than those calculated with previous methods. Differences between old and new methods are especially high south of approximately 55°S, where bomb 14C inventories are relatively modest.

/pdf/oceanic-radiocarbon-between-antarctica-and-south-africa-1v3vqsn0bt.pdf

Oceanic Radiocarbon Between Antarctica and South Africa Along Woce Section 16 at 30°E

Results are presented of radiocarbon and tritium measurements along a transect between the Australian continental shelf and the Indonesian coast of Bali. The stations lie in the easternmost part of the Indian Ocean, close to the sills over which the Indonesian throughflow (ITF) makes its way to the Indian Ocean. The present data, obtained as part of the Java- Australia Dynamics Experiment (JADE) in August 1989, complement the WOCE 14C and tritium data set on both sides of the Indonesian archipelago and give us the opportunity to discuss the origin of the water masses and timescale of the throughflow. Both tracers point to a north equatorial Pacific origin of the waters. The comparison of the tritium inventories in the Pacific North Equatorial Current and along the JADE transect suggests a minimum transit time of the waters across the Indonesian seaways of the order of 5 to 6 yr, corresponding to a throughflow smaller than 18 106 m3/s.

/pdf/oceanic-radiocarbon-and-tritium-on-a-transect-between-3ymszitm6f.pdf

Viviane Leboucher

Papers

Oceanic Radiocarbon Between Antarctica and South Africa Along Woce Section 16 at 30°E

Oceanic radiocarbon and tritium on a transect between australia and bali (eastern indian ocean)