Toggle Main Menu Toggle Search

Open Access padlockePrints

Advances in understanding of air-sea exchange and cycling of greenhouse gases in the upper ocean

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Hermann Bange, Emeritus Professor Robert Upstill-Goddard, Professor Sam Wilson

Downloads


Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

© 2024 University of California Press. All rights reserved. The air–sea exchange and oceanic cycling of greenhouse gases (GHG), including carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO), and nitrogen oxides (NOx ¼ NO þ NO2), are fundamental in controlling the evolution of the Earth’s atmospheric chemistry and climate. Significant advances have been made over the last 10 years in understanding, instrumentation and methods, as well as deciphering the production and consumption pathways of GHG in the upper ocean (including the surface and subsurface ocean down to approximately 1000 m). The global ocean under current conditions is now well established as a major sink for CO2, a major source for N2O and a minor source for both CH4 and CO. The importance of the ocean as a sink or source of NOx is largely unknown so far. There are still considerable uncertainties about the processes and their major drivers controlling the distributions of N2O, CH4, CO, and NOx in the upper ocean. Without having a fundamental understanding of oceanic GHG production and consumption pathways, our knowledge about the effects of ongoing major oceanic changes—warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and eutrophication—on the oceanic cycling and air–sea exchange of GHG remains rudimentary at best. We suggest that only through a comprehensive, coordinated, and interdisciplinary approach that includes data collection by global observation networks as well as joint process studies can the necessary data be generated to (1) identify the relevant microbial and phytoplankton communities, (2) quantify the rates of ocean GHG production and consumption pathways, (3) comprehend their major drivers, and (4) decipher economic and cultural implications of mitigation solutions.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Bange HW, Mongwe P, Shutler JD, Arevalo-Martinez DL, Bianchi D, Lauvset SK, Liu C, Loscher CR, Martins H, Rosentreter JA, Schmale O, Steinhoff T, Upstill-Goddard RC, Wanninkhof R, Wilson ST, Xie H

Publication type: Review

Publication status: Published

Journal: Elementa

Year: 2024

Volume: 12

Issue: 1

Online publication date: 12/01/2024

Acceptance date: 21/10/2023

ISSN (electronic): 2325-1026

Publisher: University of California Press

URL: https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2023.00044

DOI: 10.1525/elementa.2023.00044


Share