Artificial Upwelling—A Refined Narrative Jürchott, M.; Oschlies, A.; Koeve, W.
Geophysical research letters,
28 February 2023, Letnik:
50, Številka:
4
Journal Article
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The current narrative of artificial upwelling (AU) is to translocate nutrient rich deep water to the ocean surface, thereby stimulating the biological carbon pump (BCP). Our refined narrative takes ...the response of the solubility pump and the CO2 emission scenario into account. Using global ocean‐atmosphere model experiments we show that the effectiveness of a hypothetical maximum AU deployment in all ocean areas where AU is predicted to lower surface pCO2, the draw down of CO2 from the atmosphere during years 2020–2100 depends strongly on the CO2 emission scenario and ranges from 1.01 Pg C/year (3.70 Pg CO2/year) under RCP 8.5 to 0.32 Pg C/year (1.17 Pg CO2/year) under RCP 2.6. The solubility pump becomes equally effective compared to the BCP under the highest emission scenario (RCP 8.5), but responds with CO2 outgassing under low CO2 emission scenarios.
Plain Language Summary
Artificial upwelling (AU) is a proposed marine carbon dioxide removal (CDR) method, which suggests deploying pipes in the ocean to pump deep water to the ocean's surface. This process theoretically has several different impacts on the surface layer including an increase in the nutrient concentration, as well as a decrease in surface water temperature. Changes in the carbon cycle and associated with biological components are covered by the biological carbon pump (BCP), while changes via physical‐chemical processes are covered by the solubility pump. Using numerical ocean modeling and simulating almost globally applied AU between the years 2020 and 2100 under several different atmospheric CO2 emission scenarios, we show that AU leads under every simulated emission scenario to an additional CO2‐uptake of the ocean, but the potential increases under higher emission scenarios (up to 1.01 Pg C/year (3.70 Pg CO2/year) under the high CO2‐emission scenario RCP 8.5). The individual contribution via the BCP is under every emission scenario positive, while the processes associated with the solubility pump can lead to CO2‐uptake under higher emission scenarios and CO2 outgassing under lower emission scenarios.
Key Points
Artificial upwelling (AU) effectiveness to draw down CO2 from the atmosphere is strongly dependent on the future CO2 emission scenario
The solubility pump becomes as effective as the biological carbon pump under high emission scenarios
Organic matter transfer efficiency decreases under AU, likely due to higher water temperatures below the ocean's surface
In a widely‐held conception, the biological carbon pump (BCP) is equal to the export of organic matter out of the euphotic zone. Using global ocean‐atmosphere model experiments we show that the ...change in export production is a poor measure of the biological pump's feedback to the atmosphere. The change in global true oxygen utilization (TOU), an integrative measure of the imprint of the BCP on marine oxygen, however, is in good agreement with the net change in the biogenic air‐sea flux of oxygen. Since TOU correlates very well with apparent oxygen utilization (AOU) in our experiments, we propose to measure the change of AOU from data of global float programs to monitor the feedback of the BCP to the atmosphere. For the current ocean we estimate that BCP changes effect a CO2 uptake by the ocean in the range of 0.07 to 0.14 GtC/yr.
Plain Language Summary
The biological carbon pump is an important element of marine carbon cycling and climate control on millennium timescales. In a widely‐held conception the export of organic carbon from the productive surface layer of the ocean is used as the essential measure of this carbon pump. Using numerical ocean modeling, we show here that the change in export production is, however, a poor measure of the biological carbon pump's feedback to the atmosphere on centennial timescales. In the contrary, we find that an oxygen‐based measure, the apparent oxygen utilization can be used to quantify the impact of biological pump changes on the atmosphere. Since the apparent oxygen utilization is easily accessible from an existing network of marine floats, our study suggests that the atmospheric impact of any future changes of the biological carbon pump can be monitored and quantified. For past decades our study proposes a negligible CO2 feedback to climate from biological carbon processing.
Key Points
Apparent oxygen utilization is proposed to quantify the feedback of the biological carbon pump to the atmosphere in a warming ocean
Changes in export production are unrelated to changes in biotic oxygen air‐sea gas exchange
The CO2‐flux due to changes of the biological carbon pump over the recent decades is negligible compared to the total marine CO2 uptake
There is currently no consensus on how humans are affecting the marine nitrogen (N) cycle, which limits marine biological production and CO2 uptake. Anthropogenic changes in ocean warming, ...deoxygenation, and atmospheric N deposition can all individually affect the marine N cycle and the oceanic production of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). However, the combined effect of these perturbations on marine N cycling, ocean productivity, and marine N2O production is poorly understood. Here we use an Earth system model of intermediate complexity to investigate the combined effects of estimated 21st century CO2 atmospheric forcing and atmospheric N deposition. Our simulations suggest that anthropogenic perturbations cause only a small imbalance to the N cycle relative to preindustrial conditions (∼+5 Tg N y−1 in 2100). More N loss from water column denitrification in expanded oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) is counteracted by less benthic denitrification, due to the stratification‐induced reduction in organic matter export. The larger atmospheric N load is offset by reduced N inputs by marine N2 fixation. Our model predicts a decline in oceanic N2O emissions by 2100. This is induced by the decrease in organic matter export and associated N2O production and by the anthropogenically driven changes in ocean circulation and atmospheric N2O concentrations. After comprehensively accounting for a series of complex physical‐biogeochemical interactions, this study suggests that N flux imbalances are limited by biogeochemical feedbacks that help stabilize the marine N inventory against anthropogenic changes. These findings support the hypothesis that strong negative feedbacks regulate the marine N inventory on centennial time scales.
Key Points
Negative nitrogen cycle feedbacks reduce anthropogenic perturbations
Oceanic N2O emissions are predicted to decline by 2100
Anthropogenically driven changes in ocean circulation and atmospheric N deposition combine to intensify OMZs
Growing slowly, marine N2 fixers are generally expected to be competitive only where nitrogen (N) supply is low relative to that of phosphorus (P) with respect to the cellular N:P ratio (R) of ...nonfixing phytoplankton. This is at odds with observed high N2 fixation rates in the oligotrophic North Atlantic where the ratio of nutrients supplied to the surface is elevated in N relative to the average R (16:1). In this study, we investigate several mechanisms to solve this puzzle: iron limitation, phosphorus enhancement by preferential remineralization or stoichiometric diversity of phytoplankton, and dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP) utilization. Combining resource competition theory and a global coupled ecosystem‐circulation model, we find that the additional N and energy investments required for exoenzymatic breakdown of DOP give N2 fixers a competitive advantage in oligotrophic P‐starved regions. Accounting for this mechanism expands the ecological niche of N2 fixers also to regions where the nutrient supply is high in N relative to R, yielding, in our model, a pattern consistent with the observed high N2 fixation rates in the oligotrophic North Atlantic.
Key Points
Marine N2 fixers can successfully compete in N‐rich environments
Observed patterns of marine N2 fixation in the North Atlantic can be explained
Iron limitation enhances P* fluxes in oligotrophic regions
Abstract
The ocean is the main source of thermal inertia in the climate system. Ocean heat uptake during recent decades has been quantified using ocean temperature measurements. However, these ...estimates all use the same imperfect ocean dataset and share additional uncertainty due to sparse coverage, especially before 2007. Here, we provide an independent estimate by using measurements of atmospheric oxygen (O
2
) and carbon dioxide (CO
2
) – levels of which increase as the ocean warms and releases gases – as a whole ocean thermometer. We show that the ocean gained 1.29 ± 0.79 × 10
22
Joules of heat per year between 1991 and 2016, equivalent to a planetary energy imbalance of 0.80 ± 0.49 W watts per square metre of Earth’s surface. We also find that the ocean-warming effect that led to the outgassing of O
2
and CO
2
can be isolated from the direct effects of anthropogenic emissions and CO
2
sinks. Our result – which relies on high-precision O
2
atmospheric measurements dating back to 1991 – leverages an integrative Earth system approach and provides much needed independent confirmation of heat uptake estimated from ocean data.
The conversion of fixed nitrogen to N2 in suboxic waters is estimated to contribute roughly a third to total oceanic losses of fixed nitrogen and is hence understood to be of major importance to ...global oceanic production and, therefore, to the role of the ocean as a sink of atmospheric CO2. At present heterotrophic denitrification and autotrophic anammox are considered the dominant sinks of fixed nitrogen. Recently, it has been suggested that the trophic nature of pelagic N2-production may have additional, "collateral" effects on the carbon cycle, where heterotrophic denitrification provides a shallow source of CO2 and autotrophic anammox a shallow sink. Here, we analyse the stoichiometries of nitrogen and associated carbon conversions in marine oxygen minimum zones (OMZ) focusing on heterotrophic denitrification, autotrophic anammox, and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to nitrite and ammonium in order to test this hypothesis quantitatively. For open ocean OMZs the combined effects of these processes turn out to be clearly heterotrophic, even with high shares of the autotrophic anammox reaction in total N2-production and including various combinations of dissimilatory processes which provide the substrates to anammox. In such systems, the degree of heterotrophy (ΔCO2:ΔN2), varying between 1.7 and 6.5, is a function of the efficiency of nitrogen conversion. On the contrary, in systems like the Black Sea, where suboxic N-conversions are supported by diffusive fluxes of NH4+ originating from neighbouring waters with sulphate reduction, much lower values of ΔCO2:ΔN2 can be found. However, accounting for concomitant diffusive fluxes of CO2, the ratio approaches higher values similar to those computed for open ocean OMZs. Based on this analysis, we question the significance of collateral effects concerning the trophic nature of suboxic N-conversions on the marine carbon cycle.
We use a simple 1‐D model representing an isolated density surface in the ocean and 3‐D global ocean biogeochemical models to evaluate the concept of computing the subsurface oceanic oxygen ...utilization rate (OUR) from the changes of apparent oxygen utilization (AOU) and water age. The distribution of AOU in the ocean is not only the imprint of respiration in the ocean's interior but is strongly influenced by transport processes and eventually loss at the ocean surface. Since AOU and water age are subject to advection and diffusive mixing, it is only when they are affected both in the same way that OUR represents the correct rate of oxygen consumption. This is the case only when advection prevails or with uniform respiration rates, when the proportions of AOU and age are not changed by transport. In experiments with the 1‐D tube model, OUR underestimates respiration when maximum respiration rates occur near the outcrops of isopycnals and overestimates when maxima occur far from the outcrops. Given the distribution of respiration in the ocean, i.e., elevated rates near high‐latitude outcrops of isopycnals and low rates below the oligotrophic gyres, underestimates are the rule. Integrating these effects globally in three coupled ocean biogeochemical and circulation models, we find that AOU‐over‐age based calculations underestimate true model respiration by a factor of 3. Most of this difference is observed in the upper 1000 m of the ocean with the discrepancies increasing toward the surface where OUR underestimates respiration by as much as factor of 4.
Key Points
OUR, a standard method in ocean biogeochemistry, underestimates ocean respiration severely
The underestimate is due to the uneven distribution of respiration in the ocean and its patterns
The degree of underestimate depends on the relative importance of advection versus diffusive mixing
The marine nitrogen (N) inventory is thought to be stabilized by negative feedback mechanisms that reduce N inventory excursions relative to the more slowly overturning phosphorus inventory. Using a ...global biogeochemical ocean circulation model we show that negative feedbacks stabilizing the N inventory cannot persist if a close spatial association of N2 fixation and denitrification occurs. In our idealized model experiments, nitrogen deficient waters, generated by denitrification, stimulate local N2 fixation activity. But, because of stoichiometric constraints, the denitrification of newly fixed nitrogen leads to a net loss of N. This can enhance the N deficit, thereby triggering additional fixation in a vicious cycle, ultimately leading to a runaway N loss. To break this vicious cycle, and allow for stabilizing negative feedbacks to occur, inputs of new N need to be spatially decoupled from denitrification. Our idealized model experiments suggest that factors such as iron limitation or dissolved organic matter cycling can promote such decoupling and allow for negative feedbacks that stabilize the N inventory. Conversely, close spatial co-location of N2 fixation and denitrification could lead to net N loss.
Recent suggestions to slow down the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide have included ocean fertilization by addition of the micronutrient iron to Southern Ocean surface waters, where a number of ...natural and artificial iron fertilization experiments have shown that low ambient iron concentrations limit phytoplankton growth. Using a coupled carbon-climate model with the marine biology's response to iron addition calibrated against data from natural iron fertilization experiments, we examine biogeochemical side effects of a hypothetical large-scale Southern Ocean Iron Fertilization (OIF) that need to be considered when attempting to account for possible OIF-induced carbon offsets. In agreement with earlier studies our model simulates an OIF-induced increase in local air-sea CO2 fluxes by about 73 GtC over a 100-year period, which amounts to about 48% of the OIF-induced increase in organic carbon export out of the fertilized area. Offsetting CO2 return fluxes outside the region and after stopping the fertilization at 1, 7, 10, 50, and 100 years are quantified for a typical accounting period of 100 years. For continuous Southern Ocean iron fertilization, the CO2 return flux outside the fertilized area cancels about 20% of the fertilization-induced CO2 air-sea flux within the fertilized area on a 100-yr timescale. This "leakage" effect has a radiative impact more than twice as large as the simulated enhancement of marine N2O emissions. Other side effects not yet discussed in terms of accounting schemes include a decrease in Southern Ocean oxygen levels and a simultaneous shrinking of tropical suboxic areas, and accelerated ocean acidification in the entire water column in the Southern Ocean at the expense of reduced globally-averaged surface-water acidification. A prudent approach to account for the OIF-induced carbon sequestration would account for global air-sea CO2 fluxes rather than for local fluxes into the fertilized area only. However, according to our model, this would underestimate the potential for offsetting CO2 emissions by about 20% on a 100 year accounting timescale. We suggest that a fair accounting scheme applicable to both terrestrial and marine carbon sequestration has to be based on emission offsets rather than on changes in individual carbon pools.
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