The spatial distribution of surface fCO2 in the Southwestern East Sea/Japan sea during summer 2005

Abstract

Fugacity of CO2 (fCO2), temperature, salinity, nutrients, and chlorophyll-a were measured in the surface waters of southwestern East Sea/Japan Sea in July 2005. Surface waters were divided into three waters based on hydrographic characteristics: the water with moderate sea surface temperature (SST) and high sea surface salinity (SSS) located east of the front (East water); the water with high SST and moderate SSS located west of the front (West water); and the water with low SST and SSS located in the middle part of the study area (Middle water). High fCO2 larger than 420 μatm were found in the West water. In the Middle water, CO2 was undersaturated with respect to the atmosphere, with values between 246 and 380 μatm. Moderate fCO2 values ranging from 370 to 420 μatm were observed in the East water. For the East and West waters, estimates of temperature dependency of fCO2 (12.6 and 15.1 μatm °C−1, respectively) were rather similar to a theoretical value, indicating that SST is likely to be a major factor controlling the surface fCO2 distribution in these two regions. In the Middle water, however, the estimated temperature dependence was somewhat lower than the theoretical value, and relatively high concentrations of surface chlorophyll-a coincided with the low surface fCO2, implying that biological uptake may considerably affect the fCO2 distribution. The net sea-to-air CO2 flux of the study area was estimated to be 0.30±4.81 mmol m−2 day−1 in summer, 2005.