The
air-sea gas exchange rate is important for modeling and verifying ocean CO2
uptake, but remains subject to considerable uncertainty. The widely assumed
quadratic or cubic dependence of the exchange rate on windspeed together with
the latitudinal pattern of mean windspeed implies that exchange is much faster
at high compared with low latitudes. This should affect the pattern of ocean
uptake of bomb carbon-14 as well as the rate of decline of and latitudinal
gradients in atmospheric Δ14CO2. We evaluate the
constraints on the windspeed dependence of the exchange rate offered by
available isotopic measurements, discuss the major uncertainties, and suggest
observational strategies to reduce these uncertainties.
Author: N. Y. Krakauer, J. T. Randerson, F. W. Primeau (niryk at caltech dot edu)
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