Is phytoplankton responsible for pumping CO₂ in the Weddell Sea?

Diana Ruiz-Pino (1) , Alejandro A. Bianchi , Hernán G. Isbert Perlender , Aurélien Paulmier , J. L. Esteves , Martha E. Ferrario

1 LOCEAN - Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques

The Southern Ocean is thought to be a sink of atmospheric CO₂ although the uptake magnitude is still a matter of debate. We report the first estimates of ocean-atmosphere CO₂ fluxes from the Weddell Sea west of 30°W based on observations collected in the austral summers between 2001 and 2005. . The data consists of high-resolution sea surface temperature, salinity, carbonate system (pCO₂, TCO₂, Alkalinity), dissolved O₂ and nutrients (nitrates, phosphates and silicates), phytoplankton taxonomy and biomass (total Chl-a for three size class, < 0.5μm, >10μm and 5μm< Chl-a

Domaines: Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]

Diana Ruiz-Pino, Alejandro A. Bianchi, Hernán G. Isbert Perlender, Aurélien Paulmier, J. L. Esteves, et al.. Is phytoplankton responsible for pumping CO₂ in the Weddell Sea?. EGU General Assembly 2012, Apr 2012, Vienne, Austria. pp.10199. ⟨hal-00920225⟩