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Title: Ocean Carbon Cycle Feedbacks Under Negative Emissions

Journal Article · · Geophysical Research Letters
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Uni Research Climate, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research Bergen Norway
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Abstract Negative emissions will most likely be needed to achieve ambitious climate targets, such as limiting global warming to 1.5°. Here we analyze the ocean carbon‐concentration and carbon‐climate feedback in an Earth system model under an idealized strong CO 2 peak and decline scenario. We find that the ocean carbon‐climate feedback is not reversible by means of negative emissions on decadal to centennial timescales. When preindustrial surface climate is restored, the oceans, due to the carbon‐climate feedback, still contain about 110 Pg less carbon compared to a simulation without climate change. This result is unsurprising but highlights an issue with a widely used carbon cycle feedback metric. We show that this metric can be greatly improved by using ocean potential temperature as a proxy for climate change. The nonlinearity (nonadditivity) of climate and CO 2 ‐driven feedbacks continues to grow after the atmospheric CO 2 peak.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
1454380
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1454381
Journal Information:
Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Vol. 45 Journal Issue: 10; ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 27 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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