PMEL Publications Abstract

FY 2004

The oceanic sink for anthropogenic CO₂

Sabine, C.L., R.A. Feely, N. Gruber, R.M. Key, K. Lee, J.L. Bullister, R. Wanninkhof, C.S Wong, D.W.R. Wallace, B. Tilbrook, F.J. Millero, T.-H. Peng, A. Kozyr, T. Ono, and A.F. Rios

Science, 305(5682), doi: 10.1126/science.1097403, 367–371 (2004)

Using inorganic carbon measurements from an international survey effort in the 1990s and a tracer-based separation technique, we estimate a global oceanic anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) sink for the period from 1800 to 1994 of 118 ± 19 petagrams of carbon. The oceanic sink accounts for ~48%of the total fossil-fuel and cement-manufacturing emissions, implying that the terrestrial biosphere was a net source of CO₂ to the atmosphere of about 39 ± 28 petagrams of carbon for this period. The current fraction of total anthropogenic CO₂ emissions stored in the ocean appears to be about one-third of the long-term potential.

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