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Simulated response of the ocean carbon cycle to anthropogenic climate warming

Nature volume 393, pages 245–249 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

A 1995 report1 of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provides a set of illustrative anthropogenic CO2 emission models leading to stabilization of atmospheric CO2 concentrations ranging from 350 to 1,000 p.p.m. (1–4). Ocean carbon-cycle models used in calculating these scenarios assume that oceanic circulation and biology remain unchanged through time. Here we examine the importance of this assumption by using a coupled atmosphere–ocean model of global warming5 for the period 1765 to 2065. We find a large potential modification to the ocean carbon sink in a vast region of the Southern Ocean where increased rainfall leads to surface freshening and increased stratification6. The increased stratification reduces the downward flux of carbon and the loss of heat to the atmosphere, both of which decrease the oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO2 relative to a constant-climate control scenario. Changes in the formation, transport and cycling of biological material may counteract the reduced uptake, but the response of the biological community to the climate change is difficult to predict on present understanding. Our simulation suggests that such physical and biological changes might already be occurring, and that they could substantially affect the ocean carbon sink over the next few decades.

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Figure 1: Time series of model boundary conditions and predictions.
Figure 2: Zonal integrals for the decade 2056–65 of: a, the change in air–sea CO2 fluxes (positive for ocean uptake) d.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Corinne Le Quéré for adding the carbon component ot the coupled model, Fortunat Joos for providing the atmospheric CO2 figures, and Jerry Mahlman and Yasuhiro Yamanaka, as well as Klaus Keller, Francois Morel, Phillippe Tortell and Ernst Maier-Reimer, for comments. The contributions of J.L.S. and T.M.C.H. were supported by the Office of Global Programs of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and by the National Science Foundation. The paper was written in part while J.L.S. was visiting the Bermuda Biological Station for Research with support from EXXON Corporation; J.L.S. thanks Tony Knap for making the arrangements.

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Author notes

  1. Syukuro Manabe

    Present address: Earth Frontier Research System, 7th Floor, Seavans Building-N, 1-2-1 Shibaura, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 105, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University, PO Box CN710, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA

    Jorge L. Sarmiento & Tertia M. C. Hughes

  2. Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory/NOAA Princeton University, PO Box 308, Princeton, 08542, New Jersey, USA

    Ronald J. Stouffer & Syukuro Manabe

Authors
  1. Jorge L. Sarmiento
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  2. Tertia M. C. Hughes
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  3. Ronald J. Stouffer
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  4. Syukuro Manabe
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Correspondence to Jorge L. Sarmiento.

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Sarmiento, J., Hughes, T., Stouffer, R. et al. Simulated response of the ocean carbon cycle to anthropogenic climate warming. Nature 393, 245–249 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/30455

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