Air-sea CO2 flux pattern along the southern Bay of Bengal waters

Abstract

Physico-chemical observations made from January 2013 to March 2015 in coastal waters of the southwest Bay of Bengal show pronounced seasonal variation in physico-chemical parameters including total alkalinity (TA: 1927.390–4088.642μmolkg−1), chlorophyll (0.13–19.41μgl−1) and also calculated dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC: 1574.219–3790.954μmolkg−1), partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2: 155.520–1488.607μatm) and air-sea CO2 flux (FCO2: −4.808 to 11.255mmolCm−2d−1). Most of the physical parameters are at their maximum during summer due to the increased solar radiation at cloud free conditions, less or no riverine inputs, and lack of vertical mixing of water column which leads to the lowest nutrients concentration, dissolved oxygen (DO), biological production, pCO2 and negative flux of CO2 to the atmosphere. Chlorophyll and DO concentrations enhanced due to increased nutrients during premonsoon and monsoon season due to the vertical mixing of water column driven by the strong winds and external inputs at respective seasons. The constant positive loading of nutrients, TA, DIC, chlorophyll, pCO2 and FCO2 against atmospheric temperature (AT), lux, sea surface temperature (SST), pH and salinity observed in principal component analysis (PCA) suggested that physical and biological parameters play vital role in the seasonal distribution of pCO2 along the southwest Bay of Bengal. The annual variability of CO2 flux clearly depicted that the southwest Bay of Bengal switch from sink (2013) to source status in the recent years (2014 and 2015) and it act as significant source of CO2 to the atmosphere with a mean flux of 0.204±1.449mmolCm−2d−1.