Recent advances in the ocean carbon system

Abstract

Ocean biogeochemistry is a critical component of the Earth's climate system, regulating on timescales of decades to millennia the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), and other radiatively active gases. Since the pre‐industrial era, the ocean has taken up about half of the carbon released by fossil fuel combustion, partially mitigating climate change. The future behavior of this oceanic sink, however, is not well understood and remains one of the major climate uncertainties [Sarmiento and Gruber, 2002].The ocean carbon inventory depends, in part, upon the complex responses of the natural ocean ecosystems and carbon system to changes in ocean circulation, dust deposition, ocean pH, ultraviolet radiation, and other factors [Fasham, 2003]. Addressing this problem requires an integrated research effort on a variety of fronts, ranging from monitoring the temporal evolution of the ocean inorganic carbon inventory to innovative studies of poorly known biological and chemical dynamics.