Abstract
Several methods to compute the anthropogenic component of total dissolved inorganic carbon ( C T anthro ) in the ocean have been reported, all in some way deducing (a) the effect by the natural processes, and (b) the background concentration in the pre-industrial scenario. In this work we present a method of calculating C T anthro using nutrient and CFC data, which takes advantage of the linear relationships found between nitrate (N), phosphate (P) and CFC-11 in the Nordic Seas sub-surface waters. The basis of the method is that older water has lower CFC-11 concentration and also has been exposed to more sinking organic matter that has decayed, resulting in the slopes of P versus CFC-11 and N versus CFC-11 being close to the classic Redfield ratio of 1:16. Combining this with the slope in total alkalinity ( A T) versus CFC-11 to correct for the dissolution of metal carbonates gives us the possibility to deduce the concentration of anthropogenic C T in the Nordic Seas. This further allowed us to compute the inventory of anthropogenic C T below 250 m in the Nordic Seas in spring 2002, to ∼1.2 Gt C.
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