The ocean carbon sink – impacts, vulnerabilities and challenges

• Published in: Earth system dynamics Vol. 6; no. 1; pp. 327 - 358
• Main Authors: Heinze, C, Meyer, S, Goris, N, Anderson, L, Steinfeldt, R, Chang, N, Le Quéré, C, Bakker, D. C. E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Gottingen Copernicus GmbH 09.06.2015; Copernicus Publications
• Subjects: Acidification; Adaptation; Air pollution; Air-sea flux; Anthropogenic factors; Atmosphere; Atmospheric models; Biogeochemical cycle; Biogeochemical cycles; Biogeochemistry; Biological activity; Burning; Carbon; Carbon cycle; Carbon dioxide; Carbon emissions; Carbon sinks; Carbon uptake; climate; Climate change; Climate Research; Climate system; Data management; Earth; Emissions; Emissions (Pollution); Fields; Fossil fuels; Gases; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Human influences; Kinetics; Klimatforskning; Land use; Marine ecosystems; Mitigation; Natural gas; Ocean carbon system; Ocean models; Oceanografi, hydrologi, vattenresurser; Oceanography, Hydrology, Water Resources; Oceans; Pollution control; Seawater; Uptake; Water vapor; Water vapour; Antarctica; Southern Ocean
• ISSN: 2190-4987; 2190-4979; 2190-4987
• DOI: 10.5194/esd-6-327-2015

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is, next to water vapour, considered to be the most important natural greenhouse gas on Earth. Rapidly rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations caused by human actions such as fossil fuel burning, land-use change or cement production over the past 250 years have given cause for concern that changes in Earth's climate system may progress at a much faster pace and larger extent than during the past 20 000 years. Investigating global carbon cycle pathways and finding suitable adaptation and mitigation strategies has, therefore, become of major concern in many research fields. The oceans have a key role in regulating atmospheric CO2 concentrations and currently take up about 25% of annual anthropogenic carbon emissions to the atmosphere. Questions that yet need to be answered are what the carbon uptake kinetics of the oceans will be in the future and how the increase in oceanic carbon inventory will affect its ecosystems and their services. This requires comprehensive investigations, including high-quality ocean carbon measurements on different spatial and temporal scales, the management of data in sophisticated databases, the application of Earth system models to provide future projections for given emission scenarios as well as a global synthesis and outreach to policy makers. In this paper, the current understanding of the ocean as an important carbon sink is reviewed with respect to these topics. Emphasis is placed on the complex interplay of different physical, chemical and biological processes that yield both positive and negative air–sea flux values for natural and anthropogenic CO2 as well as on increased CO2 (uptake) as the regulating force of the radiative warming of the atmosphere and the gradual acidification of the oceans. Major future ocean carbon challenges in the fields of ocean observations, modelling and process research as well as the relevance of other biogeochemical cycles and greenhouse gases are discussed.