TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatio-temporal variability of surface water pCO2 and nutrients in the tropical Pacific from 1981 to 2015
AU - Yasunaka, S.
AU - Kouketsu, S.
AU - Strutton, P. G.
AU - Sutton, A. J.
AU - Murata, A.
AU - Nakaoka, S.
AU - Nojiri, Y.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the many researchers and funding agencies responsible for the collection of data and quality control for their contributions to SOCAT, GLODAP, WOD, and NIES SOO observations. Among SOCAT pCO2 data we used, 25% of cruises were provided by Yukihiro Nojiri, 15% by Richard Feely and 14% by Shu Saito. We are grateful for the use of the CO2SYS program obtained from the Ocean Carbon Data System of NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/ocads/oceans/CO2SYS/co2rprt.html). Comments from the editor and anonymous reviewers were helpful in improving the manuscript. This work was financially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP 18H04129, and in part by the Global Environmental Research Coordination System, from the Ministry of the Environment, Japan (E1751). AJS is supported by the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, including resources from the Ocean Observing and Monitoring Division. This is PMEL contribution #4859.
Funding Information:
We thank the many researchers and funding agencies responsible for the collection of data and quality control for their contributions to SOCAT, GLODAP, WOD, and NIES SOO observations. Among SOCAT p CO 2 data we used, 25% of cruises were provided by Yukihiro Nojiri, 15% by Richard Feely and 14% by Shu Saito. We are grateful for the use of the CO2SYS program obtained from the Ocean Carbon Data System of NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information ( https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/ocads/oceans/CO2SYS/co2rprt.html ). Comments from the editor and anonymous reviewers were helpful in improving the manuscript. This work was financially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP 18H04129 , and in part by the Global Environmental Research Coordination System, from the Ministry of the Environment , Japan ( E1751 ). AJS is supported by the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , U.S. Department of Commerce, including resources from the Ocean Observing and Monitoring Division. This is PMEL contribution #4859. Appendix A
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Authors
PY - 2019/11/1
Y1 - 2019/11/1
N2 - This study presents a synthesis of surface water partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) and nutrient observations in the tropical Pacific (20°S–20°N) from 1981 to 2015 and characterizes the spatio-temporal variability. We used data from the Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas version 5, which include about 2 million pCO2 measurements in the tropical Pacific. Unlike many previous studies that estimated pCO2 fields from relationships with other variables like sea surface temperature, we developed gridded products of monthly means using a technique to interpolate measured pCO2 values. Large seasonal variation of pCO2 appears in the cold tongue region (EQ–20°S, east of 120°W) corresponding to the seasonal variation of coastal upwelling, and in the off-equatorial region where the thermodynamic effect on pCO2 dominates. Consistent with previous findings, pCO2 along the equator declines during El Niño due to weakening of the easterly winds and therefore reduced upwelling of CO2 rich subsurface water. We also quantified the spatial distribution of the long-term pCO2 trend beyond the area-averaged trend presented previously. The long-term trend of pCO2 is positive in all regions with an area average of 1.8 ± 0.1 μatm yr−1. However, along the equator the trend is > 2 μatm yr−1 linked to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation forcing. Using the same methodology, we also analyzed about 20,000 surface nutrient measurements from the Global Ocean Data Analysis Project version 2, World Ocean Database 2013, and ship-of-opportunity sampling by the National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan. We present the spatial patterns of reduced surface nutrient concentration in the central to eastern tropics along the equator during El Niño, but there are not enough data to characterize the trends of nutrients in the tropical Pacific. Decorrelation analyses are also applied using covariance between pCO2 anomalies separated by a lag increment for zonal, meridional, and temporal directions. The e-folding scale of pCO2 is estimated to be 6° in latitude, 13° in longitude, and 2 months with a signal-to-noise ratio of 4, which are used as input for the interpolation as well as an assessment of ideal observation density and frequency. Decorrelation analyses such as this are critical for evaluating existing observing system design and informing future sampling strategies.
AB - This study presents a synthesis of surface water partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) and nutrient observations in the tropical Pacific (20°S–20°N) from 1981 to 2015 and characterizes the spatio-temporal variability. We used data from the Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas version 5, which include about 2 million pCO2 measurements in the tropical Pacific. Unlike many previous studies that estimated pCO2 fields from relationships with other variables like sea surface temperature, we developed gridded products of monthly means using a technique to interpolate measured pCO2 values. Large seasonal variation of pCO2 appears in the cold tongue region (EQ–20°S, east of 120°W) corresponding to the seasonal variation of coastal upwelling, and in the off-equatorial region where the thermodynamic effect on pCO2 dominates. Consistent with previous findings, pCO2 along the equator declines during El Niño due to weakening of the easterly winds and therefore reduced upwelling of CO2 rich subsurface water. We also quantified the spatial distribution of the long-term pCO2 trend beyond the area-averaged trend presented previously. The long-term trend of pCO2 is positive in all regions with an area average of 1.8 ± 0.1 μatm yr−1. However, along the equator the trend is > 2 μatm yr−1 linked to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation forcing. Using the same methodology, we also analyzed about 20,000 surface nutrient measurements from the Global Ocean Data Analysis Project version 2, World Ocean Database 2013, and ship-of-opportunity sampling by the National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan. We present the spatial patterns of reduced surface nutrient concentration in the central to eastern tropics along the equator during El Niño, but there are not enough data to characterize the trends of nutrients in the tropical Pacific. Decorrelation analyses are also applied using covariance between pCO2 anomalies separated by a lag increment for zonal, meridional, and temporal directions. The e-folding scale of pCO2 is estimated to be 6° in latitude, 13° in longitude, and 2 months with a signal-to-noise ratio of 4, which are used as input for the interpolation as well as an assessment of ideal observation density and frequency. Decorrelation analyses such as this are critical for evaluating existing observing system design and informing future sampling strategies.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.dsr2.2019.104680
DO - 10.1016/j.dsr2.2019.104680
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075437752
VL - 169-170
JO - Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography
JF - Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography
SN - 0967-0645
M1 - 104680
ER -