How have recent temperature changes affected the efficiency of ocean biological carbon export?
The ocean's large, microbially mediated reservoirs of carbon are intimately connected with atmospheric CO2 and climate, yet quantifying the feedbacks between them remains an unresolved challenge. Through an idealized mechanistic model, we consider the impact of documented climate change during...
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| Format: | Article |
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American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Inc
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118375 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3102-0341 |
| _version_ | 1826217161357524992 |
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| author | Bisson, Kelsey Cael, B. B. Follows, Michael J |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Bisson, Kelsey Cael, B. B. Follows, Michael J |
| author_sort | Bisson, Kelsey |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The ocean's large, microbially mediated reservoirs of carbon are intimately connected with atmospheric CO2 and climate, yet quantifying the feedbacks between them remains an unresolved challenge. Through an idealized mechanistic model, we consider the impact of documented climate change during the past few decades on the efficiency of biological carbon export out of the surface ocean. This model is grounded in universal metabolic phenomena, describing export efficiency's temperature dependence in terms of the differential temperature sensitivity of phototrophic and heterotrophic metabolism. Temperature changes are suggested to have caused a statistically significant decrease in export efficiency of 1.5% ± 0.4% over the past 33 yr. Larger changes are suggested in the midlatitudes and Arctic. This interpretation is robust across multiple sea surface temperature and net primary production data products. The same metabolic mechanism may have resulted in much larger changes e.g., in response to the large temperature shifts between glacial and interglacial time periods. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:59:00Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/118375 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:59:00Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Inc |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1183752022-10-03T09:36:12Z How have recent temperature changes affected the efficiency of ocean biological carbon export? Bisson, Kelsey Cael, B. B. Follows, Michael J Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Cael, B. B. Follows, Michael J The ocean's large, microbially mediated reservoirs of carbon are intimately connected with atmospheric CO2 and climate, yet quantifying the feedbacks between them remains an unresolved challenge. Through an idealized mechanistic model, we consider the impact of documented climate change during the past few decades on the efficiency of biological carbon export out of the surface ocean. This model is grounded in universal metabolic phenomena, describing export efficiency's temperature dependence in terms of the differential temperature sensitivity of phototrophic and heterotrophic metabolism. Temperature changes are suggested to have caused a statistically significant decrease in export efficiency of 1.5% ± 0.4% over the past 33 yr. Larger changes are suggested in the midlatitudes and Arctic. This interpretation is robust across multiple sea surface temperature and net primary production data products. The same metabolic mechanism may have resulted in much larger changes e.g., in response to the large temperature shifts between glacial and interglacial time periods. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award OCE-1315201) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant OCE-1259388) Simons Foundation (Grant 329108) Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (Grant GBMF3778) 2018-10-05T16:05:23Z 2018-10-05T16:05:23Z 2017-08 2017-04 2018-09-24T17:13:12Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2378-2242 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118375 Cael, B. B. et al. “How Have Recent Temperature Changes Affected the Efficiency of Ocean Biological Carbon Export?” Limnology and Oceanography Letters 2, 4 (June 2017): 113–118 © 2017 The Authors https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3102-0341 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/LOL2.10042 Limnology and Oceanography Letters Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ application/pdf American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Inc Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) |
| spellingShingle | Bisson, Kelsey Cael, B. B. Follows, Michael J How have recent temperature changes affected the efficiency of ocean biological carbon export? |
| title | How have recent temperature changes affected the efficiency of ocean biological carbon export? |
| title_full | How have recent temperature changes affected the efficiency of ocean biological carbon export? |
| title_fullStr | How have recent temperature changes affected the efficiency of ocean biological carbon export? |
| title_full_unstemmed | How have recent temperature changes affected the efficiency of ocean biological carbon export? |
| title_short | How have recent temperature changes affected the efficiency of ocean biological carbon export? |
| title_sort | how have recent temperature changes affected the efficiency of ocean biological carbon export |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118375 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3102-0341 |
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