Multiple regimes of air-sea carbon partitioning identified from constant-alkalinity buffer factors

Numerical studies have indicated that the steady-state ocean-atmosphere partitioning of carbon will change profoundly as emissions continue. In particular, the globally averaged Revelle buffer factor will first increase and then decrease at higher emissions. Furthermore, atmospheric carbon will init...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Goodwin, Philip (Author), Omta, Anne Willem (Contributor), Follows, Michael J (Contributor)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2018-10-03T15:54:24Z.
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Online Access:Get fulltext
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100 1 0 |a Goodwin, Philip  |e author 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Omta, Anne Willem  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Follows, Michael J  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Omta, Anne Willem  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Follows, Michael J  |e author 
245 0 0 |a Multiple regimes of air-sea carbon partitioning identified from constant-alkalinity buffer factors 
260 |b American Geophysical Union (AGU),   |c 2018-10-03T15:54:24Z. 
856 |z Get fulltext  |u http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118341 
520 |a Numerical studies have indicated that the steady-state ocean-atmosphere partitioning of carbon will change profoundly as emissions continue. In particular, the globally averaged Revelle buffer factor will first increase and then decrease at higher emissions. Furthermore, atmospheric carbon will initially grow exponentially with emission size, after which it will depend linearly on emissions at higher emission totals. In this article, we explain this behavior by means of an analytical theory based on simple carbonate chemistry. A cornerstone of the theory is a newly defined dimensionless factor, O. We show that the qualitative changes are connected with different regimes in ocean chemistry: if the air-sea partitioning of carbon is determined by the carbonate ion, then the Revelle factor increases with emissions, whereas the buffer factor decreases with emission size, when dissolved carbon dioxide determines the partitioning. Currently, the ocean carbonate chemistry is dominated by the carbonate ion response, but at high total emissions, the response of dissolved carbon dioxide takes on this role. 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t Global Biogeochemical Cycles