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Seasonal and interannual variations in atmospheric oxygen and implications for the global carbon cycle

Abstract

Measurements of changes in atmospheric molecular oxygen using a new interferometric technique show that the O2 content of air varies seasonally in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and is decreasing from year to year. The seasonal variations provide a new basis for estimating global rates of biological organic carbon production in the ocean, and the interannual decrease constrains estimates of the rate of anthropogenic CO2 uptake by the oceans.

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Keeling, R., Shertz, S. Seasonal and interannual variations in atmospheric oxygen and implications for the global carbon cycle. Nature 358, 723–727 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1038/358723a0

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