The Oceanic Sink for Anthropogenic CO2

Christopher L. Sabine; Richard A. Feely; Nicolas Gruber; Robert M. Key; Kitack Lee; John L. Bullister; Rik Wanninkhof; C. S. Wong; Douglas W. R. Wallace; Bronte Tilbrook; Frank J. Millero; Tsung-Hung Peng; Alexander Kozyr; Tsueno Ono; Aida F. Rios

doi:10.1126/science.1097403

Research Article

The Oceanic Sink for Anthropogenic CO₂

Christopher L. Sabine1,*,
Richard A. Feely1,
Nicolas Gruber2,
Robert M. Key3,
Kitack Lee4,
John L. Bullister1,
Rik Wanninkhof5,
C. S. Wong6,
Douglas W. R. Wallace7,
Bronte Tilbrook8,
Frank J. Millero9,
Tsung-Hung Peng5,
Alexander Kozyr10,
Tsueno Ono11,
Aida F. Rios12

¹ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115, USA.
² University of California–Los Angeles, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
³ Princeton University, Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Forrestal Campus/Sayre Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
⁴ Pohang University of Science and Technology, San 31, Nam-gu, Hyoja-dong, Pohang 790-784, South Korea.
⁵ NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, 4301 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149, USA.
⁶ Institute of Ocean Sciences, Climate Chemistry Laboratory, Post Office Box 6000, Sidney, BC V8L 4B2, Canada.
⁷ Forschungsbereich Marine Biogeochemie, Leibniz Institut für Meereswissenschafte, an der Universität Kiel, (IFM-GEOMAR), Düsternbrooker Weg 20, D-24105 Kiel, Germany.
⁸ Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Marine Research and Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem Cooperative Research Center, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia.
⁹ University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Division of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149, USA.
¹⁰ Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Mail Stop 6335, Oak Ridge, TN 37831–6335, USA.
¹¹ Frontier Research System for Global Change/Institute for Global Change Research, Sumitomo Hamamatsu-cho, Building 4F, 1-18-16 Hamamatsutyo, Minato-ku, 105-0013, Japan.
¹² Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas, Consejo Superior de Investigationes Cientificas, c/Eduardo Cabello, 6, 36208 Vigo, Spain.

↵* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: chris.sabine{at}noaa.gov

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Science 16 Jul 2004:
Vol. 305, Issue 5682, pp. 367-371
DOI: 10.1126/science.1097403

Christopher L. Sabine

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115, USA.

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Richard A. Feely

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115, USA.

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Nicolas Gruber

University of California–Los Angeles, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.

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Robert M. Key

Princeton University, Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Forrestal Campus/Sayre Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.

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Kitack Lee

Pohang University of Science and Technology, San 31, Nam-gu, Hyoja-dong, Pohang 790-784, South Korea.

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John L. Bullister

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115, USA.

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Rik Wanninkhof

NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, 4301 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149, USA.

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C. S. Wong

Institute of Ocean Sciences, Climate Chemistry Laboratory, Post Office Box 6000, Sidney, BC V8L 4B2, Canada.

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Douglas W. R. Wallace

Forschungsbereich Marine Biogeochemie, Leibniz Institut für Meereswissenschafte, an der Universität Kiel, (IFM-GEOMAR), Düsternbrooker Weg 20, D-24105 Kiel, Germany.

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Bronte Tilbrook

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Marine Research and Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem Cooperative Research Center, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia.

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Frank J. Millero

University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Division of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149, USA.

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Tsung-Hung Peng

NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, 4301 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149, USA.

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Alexander Kozyr

Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Mail Stop 6335, Oak Ridge, TN 37831–6335, USA.

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Tsueno Ono

Frontier Research System for Global Change/Institute for Global Change Research, Sumitomo Hamamatsu-cho, Building 4F, 1-18-16 Hamamatsutyo, Minato-ku, 105-0013, Japan.

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Aida F. Rios

Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas, Consejo Superior de Investigationes Cientificas, c/Eduardo Cabello, 6, 36208 Vigo, Spain.

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Abstract

Using inorganic carbon measurements from an international survey effort in the 1990s and a tracer-based separation technique, we estimate a global oceanic anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO₂) sink for the period from 1800 to 1994 of 118 ± 19 petagrams of carbon. The oceanic sink accounts for ∼48% of the total fossil-fuel and cement-manufacturing emissions, implying that the terrestrial biosphere was a net source of CO₂ to the atmosphere of about 39 ± 28 petagrams of carbon for this period. The current fraction of total anthropogenic CO₂ emissions stored in the ocean appears to be about one-third of the long-term potential.

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The oceans have taken up nearly half of the anthropogenically emitted CO₂ since 1800, lowering the pH; future CO₂ uptake may hinder the growth of calcium carbonate–containing plankton and corals.

The Oceanic Sink for Anthropogenic CO₂

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