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Abstract The subpolar North Atlantic plays an outsized role in the atmosphere‐to‐ocean carbon sink. The central Irminger Sea is home to well‐documented deep winter convection and high phytoplankton production, which drive strong seasonal and interannual variability in regional carbon cycling. We use observational data from moored carbonate chemistry system sensors and annual turn‐around cruise samples at the Ocean Observatories Initiative's Irminger Sea Array to construct a near‐continuous time series of mixed layer total dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC),pCO2, and total alkalinity from summer 2015 to summer 2022. We use these carbonate chemistry system time series to deconvolve the physical and biological drivers of surface ocean carbon cycling in this region on seasonal, annual, and interannual time scales. We find high annual net community production within the seasonally varying mixed layer, averaging 9.8 ± 1.6 mol m−2 yr−1with high interannual variability (range of 6.0–13.9 mol m−2 yr−1). The highest daily net community production rates occur during the late winter and early spring, prior to the observed high chlorophyll concentrations associated with the spring phytoplankton bloom. As a result, the winter and early spring play a much larger role in biological carbon export from the mixed layer than traditionally thought.
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Annual Mixed Layer Carbon Budget for the West Antarctic Peninsula Continental Shelf: Insights From Year‐Round Mooring Measurements
Abstract For the first time the annual carbon budget on the West Antarctic Peninsula shelf was studied with continuously measured CO2system parameters (pH andpCO2) from a subsurface mooring. The temporal evolution of the mixed layer dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) is investigated via a mass balance. The annual mixed layer DIC inventory change was 1.1 ± 0.4 mol m−2 yr−1, which was mainly regulated by biological drawdown (−2.8 ± 2.4 mol m−2 yr−1), diapycnal eddy diffusion (2.6 ± 1.3 mol m−2 yr−1), entrainment/detrainment (0.9 ± 0.4 mol m−2 yr−1), and air‐water gas exchange (0.4 ± 2.1 mol m−2 yr−1). Significant carbon drawdown was observed in the spring and summer, which was replenished by the physical processes mentioned above. These observations suggest this area is an annual atmosphere CO2sink with a mixed layer net community production of 2.8 ± 2.4 mol m−2 yr−1. These results highlight the significant seasonality in the DIC mass balance and the necessity of year‐round continuous observations for robust assessments of biogeochemical cycling in this region.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2026045
- PAR ID:
- 10450214
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
- Volume:
- 126
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2169-9275
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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