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STORAGE OF ANTHROPOGENIC CARBON IN ATLANTIC OCEAN WATER
MASSES AND ITS DECADAL VARIABILITY
Reiner Steinfeldt (1) , Toste Tanhua (2), Emil Jeansson (3), Dagmar Kieke (1), Monika Rhein (1)
(1) University of Bremen, Germany
(2) GEOMAR, Germany
(3) Uni Research AS, Norway
[email protected]
The ocean plays a significant role in the storage of anthropogenic carbon (Cant). About 45% of the
fossil fuel CO2 emissions are currently contained in the world's ocean. The Atlantic, especially in
its northern part, shows higher column inventories of anthropogenic carbon than the Indian and
Pacific Ocean, illustrating the role of North Atlantic Deep Water for the storage of CO2 emissions
from the atmosphere. Here we use oceanic observations of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) over
thirty years, mainly from the new data collection GLODAPv2, to infer the concentration of Cant
in the Atlantic. The data are grouped into three time frames, and decadal changes of the total Cant
inventory are inferred. In addition to the full column inventory of Cant, the contribution of the
main water masses is calculated. The decadal changes of the Cant content of the different water
masses are compared with a steady state estimate, where Cant would increase solely due to the rise
of atmospheric CO2. The difference between this steady state estimate and the decadal variability
allows for quantifacation of the impact of changes in ocean ventilation and circulation on the
oceanic storage of Cant.