Review: `Oxygen export to the deep ocean following Labrador Sea Water formation’ by Koelling et al.

Abstract

The Labrador Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean is one of the few regions globally where oxygen from the atmosphere can reach the deep ocean directly. This is the result of wintertime convection, which homogenizes the water column to a depth of up to 2000 m, and brings deep water undersaturated in oxygen into contact with the atmosphere. In this study, we analyze how the intense oxygen uptake during Labrador Sea Water (LSW) formation affects the properties of the outflowing deep western boundary current, which ultimately feeds the upper part of the North Atlantic Deep Water layer in much of the Atlantic Ocean. Seasonal cycles of oxygen concentration, temperature, and salinity from a two-year time series collected by sensors moored at 600 m nominal depth in the outflowing boundary current at 53° N show that LSW is primarily exported in the months following the onset of convection, from March to August. During the rest of the year, properties of the outflow resemble those of Irminger Water, which enters the basin with the boundary current from the Irminger Sea. The input of newly ventilated LSW increases the oxygen concentration from 298 μmol L−1 in January to a maximum of 306 μmol L−1 in April. As a result of this LSW input, 1.57 × 1012 mol year−1 of oxygen are added to the outflowing boundary current, mostly during summer, equivalent to 49 % of the wintertime uptake from the atmosphere in the interior of the basin. The export of oxygen from the subpolar gyre associated with this direct southward pathway of LSW is estimated to supply about 71 % of the oxygen consumed annually in the upper North Atlantic Deep Water layer in the Atlantic Ocean between the equator and 50° N. Our results show that the formation of LSW is important for replenishing oxygen to the deep oceans, meaning that possible changes in its formation rate and ventilation due to climate change could have wide-reaching impacts on marine life.