%ACael, B. [Department of Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge Massachusetts, Department of Physical Oceanography Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Woods Hole Massachusetts]%ACael, B. [Department of Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Sciences; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Cambridge Massachusetts; Department of Physical Oceanography; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; Woods Hole Massachusetts]%ABisson, Kelsey [Earth Research Institute, University of California Santa Barbara California]%ABisson, Kelsey [Earth Research Institute, University of California; Santa Barbara California]%AFollows, Michael [Department of Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge Massachusetts]%AFollows, Michael [Department of Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Sciences; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Cambridge Massachusetts]%BJournal Name: Limnology and Oceanography Letters; Journal Volume: 2; Journal Issue: 4; Related Information: CHORUS Timestamp: 2023-08-28 05:06:14 %D2017%IWiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons) %JJournal Name: Limnology and Oceanography Letters; Journal Volume: 2; Journal Issue: 4; Related Information: CHORUS Timestamp: 2023-08-28 05:06:14 %K %MOSTI ID: 10033676 %PMedium: X %THow have recent temperature changes affected the efficiency of ocean biological carbon export? %XAbstract

The ocean's large, microbially mediated reservoirs of carbon are intimately connected with atmospheric CO2and climate, yet quantifying the feedbacks between them remains an unresolved challenge. Through an idealized mechanistic model, we consider the impact of documented climate change during the past few decades on the efficiency of biological carbon export out of the surface ocean. This model is grounded in universal metabolic phenomena, describing export efficiency's temperature dependence in terms of the differential temperature sensitivity of phototrophic and heterotrophic metabolism. Temperature changes are suggested to have caused a statistically significant decrease in export efficiency of 1.5% ± 0.4% over the past 33 yr. Larger changes are suggested in the midlatitudes and Arctic. This interpretation is robust across multiple sea surface temperature and net primary production data products. The same metabolic mechanism may have resulted in much larger changes e.g., in response to the large temperature shifts between glacial and interglacial time periods.

%0Journal Article