Annual balance and seasonal variability of sea-air CO2 fluxes in the Patagonia Sea: Their relationship with fronts and chlorophyll distribution

Sea-air differences of CO2partial pressures (DpCO2) and surface chlorophyll a (chl-a)concentration have been determined during 22 cruises in various seasons for 2000–2006over the Patagonia Sea and shelf break. From spring to autumn, the nearshore waters act as asource of atmospheric CO2, while the midshelf and slope are a CO2sink, leading to highlynegative areal means of sea-air CO2flux and DpCO2. The DpCO2and CO2flux in springreach values of 67 matm and 7  103mol m2d1, respectively, and are close toequilibrium in winter. Sea-air DpCO2and chl-a over the shelf are negatively correlated,suggesting that photosynthesis is one of the main processes responsible for the largeCO2sequestration. The annual areal mean DpCO2and sea-air CO2flux are 31 matmand 3.7  103mol m2d1, respectively, indicating that the Patagonia Sea is one ofthe strongest CO2sinks per unit area in the World Ocean.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Bianchi, A., Pino, D., Perlender, H., Osiroff, A., Segura, V., Lutz, V., Clara, M., Balestrini, C., Piola, A.
Format:	Journal Contribution biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	2009
Online Access:	https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JC004854 http://hdl.handle.net/1834/17181
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!