The 7th International CO2 Conference Web Site - Pacific Dominance to Global Air-Sea CO2 Flux Variability

by Galen McKinley

We address an ongoing debate regarding the geographic distribution of interannual variability in ocean - atmosphere carbon exchange. We find that, for 1983-1998, both novel high-resolution atmospheric inversion calculations and global ocean biogeochemical models place the primary source of global CO₂ air-sea flux variability in the Pacific Ocean. In ocean biogeochemical models, this variability is clearly associated with the El Niño / Southern Oscillation cycle. Both inversion and models indicate that the Southern Ocean is the second-largest source of air-sea CO₂ flux variability, and that variability is small throughout the Atlantic, including the North Atlantic, in contrast to previous studies.

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