Oceanography Seminar: Pierre Regnier

January 21, 3:00pm - 4:30pm
Mānoa Campus, MSB 100

"Greenhouse gas dynamics along the global carbon route: Updated synthesis and implications for the anthropogenic CO2 budget"

This presentation provides an updated synthesis of the contribution of terrestrial-aquatic interface carbon fluxes and aquatic systems-atmosphere CO2 fluxes in the global carbon budget. In particular, we assemble the first global map of CO2 fluxes for all connected aquatic systems (river network, estuaries, coastal and open ocean) at a spatial resolution of 0.5°. Next, we attempt a decomposition of all component fluxes into a natural background and an anthropogenic perturbation loops. So far, traditional approaches used to determine the global carbon budget (as synthesized by the IPCC) omit the continuous displacement and fate of anthropogenic carbon along the land to ocean aquatic continuum (LOAC). Our results highlight that only a portion of the anthropogenic CO2 taken up by land ecosystems remain sequestered in soil and biomass pools. Some of the exported anthropogenic carbon is buried in the LOAC – the least constrained term in the overall budget analysis - and some is released back to the atmosphere as CO2, the magnitude of the air-water flux resulting from a delicate balance between outgassing from freshwaters and estuaries and a fast increasing uptake by coastal seas. A poorly known fraction of anthropogenic carbon displaced by the LOAC is transferred to the open ocean where it accumulates. To conclude, we highlight that the incorporation of the LOAC in the analysis has profound ramifications for the terrestrial and ocean carbon balances, for the anthropogenic CO2 budget at the global scale as well as for climate projections.


Event Sponsor
Oceanography, Mānoa Campus

More Information
956-7633, ocean@soest.hawaii.edu, http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/oceanography/seminar.html, Enter Title Here (PDF)

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