Stronger Oceanic CO2 Sink in Eddy-Resolving Simulations of Global Warming

Abstract

Accurately representing the ocean carbon cycle in Earth System Models (ESMs) is essential to understanding the oceanic CO2 sink evolution under CO2 emissions and global warming. A key uncertainty arises from the ESM's inability to explicitly represent mesoscale eddies. To address this limitation, we conduct eddy-resolving experiments of CO2 uptake under global warming in an idealized mid-latitude ocean model. In comparison with similar experiments at coarser resolution, we show that the CO2 sink is 34% larger in the eddy-resolving experiments. 80% of the increase stems from a more efficient anthropogenic CO2 uptake due to a stronger Meridional Overturning circulation (MOC). The remainder results from a weaker reduction in CO2 uptake associated to a weaker MOC decline under global warming. Although being only a fraction of the overall response to climate change, these results emphasize the importance of an accurate representation of small-scale ocean processes to better constrain the CO2 sink.

Stronger Oceanic CO2 Sink in Eddy-Resolving Simulations of Global Warming