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Lookup NU author(s): Bita Sabbaghzadeh, Professor Robert Upstill-GoddardORCiD, Dr Ryan Pereira
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
We report the first measurements of surfactant activity (SA) in the sea surface microlayer (SML) and in sub-surface waters (SSW) at the ocean basin scale, for two Atlantic Meridional Transects (AMT) from 50°N to 50°S during 2014 and 2015. Northern hemisphere (NH) SA was significantly higher than southern hemisphere (SH) SA in the SML and in the SSW. SA enrichment factors (EF = SASML/SASSW) were also higher in the NH, for wind speeds up to ~13 m s-1, questioning a prior assertion that Atlantic Ocean wind speeds > 12 m s-1 poleward of 30°N and 30°S would preclude high EFs and showing the SML to be self-sustaining with respect to SA. Our results imply that surfactants exert a control on air-sea CO2 exchange across the whole North Atlantic CO2 sink region and that the contribution made by high wind, high latitude oceans to air-sea gas exchange globally should be re-examined.
Author(s): Sabbaghzadeh B, Upstill-Goddard RC, Beale R, Pereira R, Nightingale PD
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
Year: 2017
Volume: 44
Issue: 6
Pages: 2852-2858
Print publication date: 28/03/2017
Online publication date: 20/03/2017
Acceptance date: 13/03/2017
Date deposited: 15/03/2017
ISSN (print): 0094-8276
ISSN (electronic): 1944-8007
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017GL072988
DOI: 10.1002/2017GL072988
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