Abstract
Because the equilibration time for CO 2 gas between the surface ocean and atmosphere is an order of magnitude shorter than the equilibration time for the isotopes of carbon, bomb-produced radiocarbon cannot be simply used as a tracer for fossil fuel CO 2. This difference is especially important for the areas of deep water formation. In this paper we derive the relationship between the isotopic equilibration time and chemical equilibration times for carbon between sea and air. We also show that if the distribution of a second transient tracer is measured, it is possible to circumvent the ambiguity associated with this exchange time difference. Tritium, while adequate in purely diffusive models, is not ideal as the second transient in models involving advection (i.e., downwelling). For such models 85Kr or freon is a much better choice.
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