Anthropogenic CO2 in Southern Ocean surface waters: evidence from stable organic carbon isotopes
✍ Scribed by G. Fischer; R. Schneider; P. J. Müller; G. Wefer
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1997
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 283 KB
- Volume
- 9
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0954-4879
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✦ Synopsis
We present an approach for tracing the fate of anthropogenic CO~2~, compiling a large data set of stable organic carbon isotope ratios from surface sediments, plankton, and sinking matter in the Atlantic Ocean. The δ^13^C values of sinking matter are generally lower by 0.5–4.6‰ compared to the surface sediments. This difference increases with increasing latitude, which is explained by a stronger modern increase in surface water [CO~2~ (aq)] in the Southern Ocean relative to the Tropical/Subtropical Ocean. Preindustrial dissolved CO~2~ concentrations in Atlantic surface waters, estimated from the δ^13^C~org~ of surface sediments, are compared to recently measured surface water [CO~2~ (aq)] values taken from literature. We obtain only a slight increase in [CO~2~ (aq)] at lower latitudes but a significant change of about 7 ± 2 μm in high latitudinal surface waters which we attribute to anthropogenic perturbation. Our results suggest that CO~2~ released by human activities has been stored in Southern Ocean surface waters.