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Published Online May 17, 2007
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1136188

Reports

Submitted on October 11, 2006
Accepted on May 2, 2007

Saturation of the Southern Ocean CO2 Sink Due to Recent Climate Change

Corinne Le Quéré 1*, Christian Rödenbeck 2, Erik T. Buitenhuis 3, Thomas J. Conway 4, Ray Langenfelds 5, Antony Gomez 6, Casper Labuschagne 7, Michel Ramonet 8, Takakiyo Nakazawa 9, Nicolas Metzl 10, Nathan Gillett 11, Martin Heimann 2

1 Max Planck Institut fur Biogeochemie, Postfach 100164, D-07701 Jena, Germany; University of East Anglia, Norwich, and the British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK.
2 Max Planck Institut fur Biogeochemie, Postfach 100164, D-07701 Jena, Germany.
3 Max Planck Institut fur Biogeochemie, Postfach 100164, D-07701 Jena, Germany; Present address: University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
4 Climate Monitoring & Diagnostics Laboratory (NOAA/CMDL), Boulder, USA.
5 CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Aspendale, Australia.
6 National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Wellington, NZ.
7 South African Weather Service (SAWS), Stellenbosch, South Africa.
8 Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement/Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (LSCE/IPSL), Gif, France.
9 Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
10 LOCEAN, Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, CNRS, Univ. P. and M. Curie, Paris, France.
11 Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Corinne Le Quéré , E-mail: c.lequere{at}uea.ac.uk

Based on observed atmospheric CO2 concentration and an inverse method, we estimate that the Southern Ocean sink of CO2 has weakened between 1981 and 2004 by 0.08 PgC/y per decade relative to the trend expected from the large increase in atmospheric CO2. This weakening is attributed to the observed increase in Southern Ocean winds resulting from human activities and projected to continue in the future. Consequences include a reduction in the efficiency of the Southern Ocean sink of CO2 in the short term (~25 years) and possibly a higher level of stabilization of atmospheric CO2 on a multicentury time scale.


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