FY 2003

Anthropogenic CO₂ uptake by the ocean based on the global chlorofluorocarbon data set

McNeil, B.I., R.J. Matear, R.M. Key, J.L. Bullister, and J.L. Sarmiento

Science, 299(5604), 235–239, doi: 10.1126/science.1077429 (2003)

We estimated the oceanic inventory of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) from 1980 to 1999 using a technique based on the global chlorofluorocarbon data set. Our analysis suggests that the ocean stored 14.8 petagrams of anthropogenic carbon from mid-1980 to mid-1989 and 17.9 petagrams of carbon from mid-1990 to mid-1999, indicating an oceanwide net uptake of 1.6 and 2.0 ± 0.4 petagrams of carbon per year, respectively. Our results provide an upper limit on the solubility-driven anthropogenic CO₂ flux into the ocean, and they suggest that most ocean general circulation models are overestimating oceanic anthropogenic CO₂ uptake over the past two decades.