The Oceanic Sink for Anthropogenic CO2

Journal Article · Wed Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2003 · Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1097403· OSTI ID:986432

Sabine, Chris ^[1]; Feely, R. A. ^[2]; Gruber, N. ^[3]; Key, Robert ^[4]; Lee, K. ^[5]; Bullister, J. L. ^[2]; Wanninkhof, R. ^[6]; Wong, C. S. ^[7]; Wallace, D. W.R. ^[8]; Tilbrook, B. ^[9]; Millero, F. J. ^[10]; Peng, T. -H. ^[6]; Kozyr, Alexander ^[11]; Ono, Tsueno ^[12]; Rios, Aida F. ^[13]

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1. NOAA, Seattle, WA
2. NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
3. ETH Zurich, Switzerland
4. Princeton University
5. Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang, Republic of Korea
6. Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory, NOAA
7. Institute of Ocean Sciences, Climate Chemistry Laboratory, Sidney, BC Canada
8. IFM-GEOMAR, Leibniz Institute for Marine Sciences, Chemical Oceanography, Kiel, Germany
9. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
10. University of Miami
11. ORNL
12. Frontier Research System for Global Change/Institute for Global Change Research, Japan
13. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas, Consejo Superior de Investigationes Cientificas, Spain

Using inorganic carbon measurements from an international survey effort in the 1990s and a tracer-based separation technique, we estimate a global oceanic anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) sink for the period from 1800 to 1994 of 118 19 petagrams of carbon. The oceanic sink accounts for ~48% of the total fossil-fuel and cement-manufacturing emissions, implying that the terrestrial biosphere was a net source of CO2 to the atmosphere of about 39 28 petagrams of carbon for this period. The current fraction of total anthropogenic CO2 emissions stored in the ocean appears to be about one-third of the long-term potential.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
• Sponsoring Organization: SC USDOE - Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 986432
• Journal Information: Science, Journal Name: Science Journal Issue: 5682 Vol. 305; ISSN 1095-9203; ISSN 0036-8075
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BIOSPHERE
CARBON
CARBON DIOXIDE