Stronger Oceanic CO2 Sink in Eddy-Resolving Simulations of Global Warming
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version
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https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3118510Utgivelsesdato
2024Metadata
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Originalversjon
10.1029/2023GL106172Sammendrag
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