Sea-ice loss amplifies summertime decadal CO2 increase in the western Arctic Ocean

Zhangxian Ouyang; Di Qi; Liqi Chen; Taro Takahashi; Wenli Zhong; Michael D. DeGrandpre; Baoshan Chen; Zhongyong Gao; Shigeto Nishino; Akihiko Murata; Heng Sun; Lisa L. Robbins; Meibing Jin; Wei Jun Cai

doi:10.1038/s41558-020-0784-2

Sea-ice loss amplifies summertime decadal CO₂ increase in the western Arctic Ocean

Zhangxian Ouyang
, Di Qi
, Liqi Chen
, Taro Takahashi
, Wenli Zhong
, Michael D. DeGrandpre
, Baoshan Chen
, Zhongyong Gao
, Shigeto Nishino
, Akihiko Murata
, Heng Sun
, Lisa L. Robbins
, Meibing Jin
, Wei Jun Cai

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

71 Scopus citations

Abstract

Rapid climate warming and sea-ice loss have induced major changes in the sea surface partial pressure of CO₂ (pCO2). However, the long-term trends in the western Arctic Ocean are unknown. Here we show that in 1994–2017, summer pCO2 in the Canada Basin increased at twice the rate of atmospheric increase. Warming and ice loss in the basin have strengthened the pCO2 seasonal amplitude, resulting in the rapid decadal increase. Consequently, the summer air–sea CO₂ gradient has reduced rapidly, and may become near zero within two decades. In contrast, there was no significant pCO2 increase on the Chukchi Shelf, where strong and increasing biological uptake has held pCO2 low, and thus the CO₂ sink has increased and may increase further due to the atmospheric CO₂ increase. Our findings elucidate the contrasting physical and biological drivers controlling sea surface pCO2 variations and trends in response to climate change in the Arctic Ocean.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	678-684
Number of pages	7
Journal	Nature Climate Change
Volume	10
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0784-2
State	Published - Jul 1 2020

Funding

We thank the contributors to the SOCAT v.5, LDEO, CHINARE, JAMSTEC, USGS, NSF Arctic Data Center and CDIAC datasets, as well as the research vessels and crews for collecting the data used in this study. We thank H. Wang for helpful discussion. This work was supported by the US NSF (grant nos ARC-0909330, PLR-1304337, OPP-1926158, PLR-1220032, PLR‐1504410, OPP−1735862 and PLR‐1723308), NOAA (grant nos NA09OAR4310078, NA150OAR4320064 and NA10NOS4000073), Interdisciplinary Research for Arctic Coastal Environments funded by US Deparment of Energy (DOE InteRFACE project), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos 41806222, 41630969, 41230529, 41476172 and 41706211), the Chinese Projects for Investigations and Assessments of the Arctic and Antarctic (grant no. CHINARE2017-2020), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant no. 2019YFA0607003), the Scientific Research Foundation of Third Institute of Oceanography, SOA (grant nos 2018005 and 2017029), the Bilateral Cooperation of Maritime Affairs (grant no. 2200207), Fujian science and technology innovation leader project 2016, and the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability (ArCS) Project funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT).

Funders	Funder number
2200207
CHINARE2017-2020
1723308, ARC-0909330, PLR-1304337, ARC-1220032, OPP-1926158, 1757353, PLR-1220032, PLR‐1723308, 1735862, PLR‐1504410
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration	NA10NOS4000073, NA09OAR4310078, NA150OAR4320064
2018005, 2017029
Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
National Natural Science Foundation of China	41706211
41806222, 41230529, 41476172, 41630969
2019YFA0607003

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 13 Climate Action

Access to Document

10.1038/s41558-020-0784-2

Cite this

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title = "Sea-ice loss amplifies summertime decadal CO2 increase in the western Arctic Ocean",

abstract = "Rapid climate warming and sea-ice loss have induced major changes in the sea surface partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2). However, the long-term trends in the western Arctic Ocean are unknown. Here we show that in 1994–2017, summer pCO2 in the Canada Basin increased at twice the rate of atmospheric increase. Warming and ice loss in the basin have strengthened the pCO2 seasonal amplitude, resulting in the rapid decadal increase. Consequently, the summer air–sea CO2 gradient has reduced rapidly, and may become near zero within two decades. In contrast, there was no significant pCO2 increase on the Chukchi Shelf, where strong and increasing biological uptake has held pCO2 low, and thus the CO2 sink has increased and may increase further due to the atmospheric CO2 increase. Our findings elucidate the contrasting physical and biological drivers controlling sea surface pCO2 variations and trends in response to climate change in the Arctic Ocean.",

author = "Zhangxian Ouyang and Di Qi and Liqi Chen and Taro Takahashi and Wenli Zhong and DeGrandpre, \{Michael D.\} and Baoshan Chen and Zhongyong Gao and Shigeto Nishino and Akihiko Murata and Heng Sun and Robbins, \{Lisa L.\} and Meibing Jin and Cai, \{Wei Jun\}",

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T1 - Sea-ice loss amplifies summertime decadal CO2 increase in the western Arctic Ocean

AU - Ouyang, Zhangxian

AU - Qi, Di

AU - Chen, Liqi

AU - Takahashi, Taro

AU - Zhong, Wenli

AU - DeGrandpre, Michael D.

AU - Chen, Baoshan

AU - Gao, Zhongyong

AU - Nishino, Shigeto

AU - Murata, Akihiko

AU - Sun, Heng

AU - Robbins, Lisa L.

AU - Jin, Meibing

AU - Cai, Wei Jun

PY - 2020/7/1

Y1 - 2020/7/1

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AB - Rapid climate warming and sea-ice loss have induced major changes in the sea surface partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2). However, the long-term trends in the western Arctic Ocean are unknown. Here we show that in 1994–2017, summer pCO2 in the Canada Basin increased at twice the rate of atmospheric increase. Warming and ice loss in the basin have strengthened the pCO2 seasonal amplitude, resulting in the rapid decadal increase. Consequently, the summer air–sea CO2 gradient has reduced rapidly, and may become near zero within two decades. In contrast, there was no significant pCO2 increase on the Chukchi Shelf, where strong and increasing biological uptake has held pCO2 low, and thus the CO2 sink has increased and may increase further due to the atmospheric CO2 increase. Our findings elucidate the contrasting physical and biological drivers controlling sea surface pCO2 variations and trends in response to climate change in the Arctic Ocean.

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