Global carbon sinks from the Scripps flask sampling networks
Date: Monday, September 26 @ 13:45:00 MDT
Topic: The Fate of Fossil-Fuel Emissions


by Ralph Keeling

Measurements of atmospheric O2/N2 ratio and CO2 concentration are presented over the period 1989 to present from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography global flask sampling network. The data are used to make estimates of land and ocean sinks over various time scales. The oceanic and land biotic sinks are estimated to be 1.9±0.6 (ocean) and 1.2±0.8 Pg C/yr (land) over the period Jan. 1990-Jan. 2000 and 2.2±0.5 (ocean) and 0.5±0.7 Pg C/yr (land) over the period Jan. 1993-Jan. 2003. These estimates make allowance for oceanic O2 and N2 outgassing based on observed changes in ocean heat content and estimates of the relative outgassing per unit warming. The recent ocean sink is consistent, to within the uncertainties, with estimates of the accumulation of anthropogenic CO2 in the ocean since 1800, assuming the oceanic sink varied over time as predicted by a box-diffusion model. The possibility that the ocean sink is being reduced slightly by climate feedbacks, as predicted by some models, is not ruled out, however.

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This article comes from The 7th International CO2 Conference Web Site
http://icdc7.cmdl.noaa.gov/

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