Meeting dates: Wednesday June 2 - Friday June 4, 2004.
Sponsored by: NOAA's CPO
Global Carbon Cycle Program
with additional support from the North Pacific Marine Science Organization
(PICES), The Global Carbon Project
(GCP),
and the University of Washington Program on Climate Changes
(UWPCC).
Organizers: Christopher L. Sabine and Richard Feely (NOAA/PMEL),
Jorge Sarmiento and Robert Key (Princeton Univ.),
Nicholas Gruber (UCLA), Scott Doney (WHOI)
Background:
A number of studies in the literature have investigated carbon cycle variability
in the central and North Pacific (e.g. Chavez et al. 1999; Cosca et al., 2002; Emerson et al.,
2001; Feely et al., 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002; Gruber et a.l, 2000; Karl et al.,
1997, 2001; Karl, 1999; Keeling et al., 2002; Keller et al., 2002; McPhaden and Zhang,
2002; Mecking, 2001; Ono et al., 2001; Sabine et al., 2002; Feely et al., in press).
Many of these studies have been related to the effects of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
on the upwelling regions of the Equatorial Pacific (e.g. Feely et al., 1999).
Recently, however, there have been several studies that have indicated significant variability
over other regions of the North Pacific (e.g. Emerson et al., 2001; Feely et al., in press).
Most of these studies have covered a relatively short time frame, examined a relatively small portion of
the North Pacific, or considered a limited number of parameters. What is lacking is an overall picture
of North Pacific variability that draws together all of these individual lines of evidence and looks
for coherent patterns that may help us understand the regional significance of this variability and
the possible mechanisms controlling the observed spatial and temporal patterns. We have organized a
synthesis project designed to bring together those researchers that have studied variability in the
North Pacific to synthesize the individual experiences into a basin-scale picture of the North
Pacific carbon-cycle. Researchers will work together through email discussions to coordinate
research activities. The mid-point of the process will be a workshop held June 2-4, 2004 in
Seattle Washington. The workshop will not simply recount published studies, but will enhance
these studies by gathering the relevant data sets together and re-analyzing them with a view
toward the larger picture. This data synthesis will be further enhanced by a simultaneous
examination of North Pacific variability in a variety of models. The model runs will be
used to predict where variability signals should be most prominent and to evaluate
whether the modeled variability is consistent with the data-based signals that develop
from the synthesis. After the workshop, the participants will work to publish a series
of coordinated manuscripts in a special section of a journal.
Primary Themes of the Project:
- How are air-sea CO2 fluxes in the North Pacific affected by different modes of variability?
- How and why are the North Pacific distribution patterns of carbon, nutrients and oxygen in the water column changing with time?
- What are the requirements for detecting a climate change signal in the North Pacific carbon cycle?
References:
Chavez, F.P., P.G. Strutton, G.E. Friederich, R.A. Feely, G. Feldman, D. Foley, and M.J. McPhaden, Biological and chemical response of the equatorial Pacific Ocean to the 1997-1998 El Niño. Science, 286(5447), 2126-2131, 1999.
Cosca, C.E., R.A. Feely, R. Wanninkhof, J. Boutin, J. Etcheto, M.J. McPhaden, F.P. Chavez and P.G. Strutton, Seasonal and interannual variations of the fCO2-SST relationships and CO2 fluxes for the central and eastern Equatorial Pacific, J. Geophys. Res., in revision, 2002.
Emerson, S., S. Mecking, and J. Abell, The biological pump in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean: Nutrient sources, redfield ratios, and recent changes, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 15, 535-554, 2001.
Feely, R.A., R. Wanninkhof, C.E. Cosca, M.J. McPhaden, R.H. Byrne, F.J. Millero, F.P. Chavez, T. Clayton, D.M. Campbell, and P.P. Murphy, The effect of tropical instability waves on CO2 species distributions along the equator in the eastern equatorial Pacific during the 1992 ENSO event. Geophys. Res. Lett., 21(4), 277-280, 1994.
Feely, R.A., R. Wanninkhof, C.E. Cosca, P.P. Murphy, M.F. Lamb, and M.D. Steckley, CO2 distributions in the equatorial Pacific during the 1991-1992 ENSO event. Deep Sea Res. II, 42(2-3), 365-386, 1995.
Feely, R.A., R. Wanninkhof, C. Goyet, D.E. Archer, and T. Takahashi, Variability of CO2 distributions and sea-air fluxes in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific during the 1991-1994 El Niño. Deep-Sea Res. II, 44(9-10), 1851-1867, 1997.
Feely, R.A., R. Wanninkhof, T. Takahashi, and P. Tans, The influence of El Niño on the equatorial Pacific contribution to atmospheric CO2 accumulation, Nature, 398, 597-601, 1999.
Feely, R.A., J. Boutin, C.E. Cosca, Y. Dandonneau, J. Etcheto, H.Y. Inoue, M. Ishii, C. Le Quéré, D. Mackey, M. McPhaden, N. Metzl, A. Poisson, and R. Wanninkhof, Seasonal and interannual variability of CO2 in the equatorial Pacific. Deep-Sea Res. II, In Press, 2002.
Feely, R.A., C.L. Sabine, K. Lee, F.J. Millero, M.F. Lamb, D. Greeley, J.L. Bullister, R.M. Key, T.-H. Peng, A. Kozyr, T. Ono, and C.S. Wong (2002): In situ calcium carbonate dissolution in the Pacific Ocean. Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 16(4), 1144, 10.1029/2002GB001866.
Feely, R.A., Y. Nojiri, A. Dickson, C.L. Sabine, and M.F. Lamb: PICES Workshop Group 13 Final Report: CO2 in the North Pacific Ocean. PICES Final Report, Victoria, B.C. [in press].
Gruber, N., Keller, and R.M. Key, What story is told by oceanic tracer concentrations? Science, 290(5491), 455-456, 2000.
Karl, D. M., R. Letelier, L. Tupas, J. Dore, J. Christian, and D. Hebel, The role of nitrogen fixation in biogeochemical cycling in the subtropical north Pacific Ocean. Nature, 388, 230-234, 1997.
Karl, D. M., A sea of change: Biogeochemical variability in the North pacific subtropical gyre. Ecosystems, 2, 181-214, 1999.
Karl, D.M., R.R. Bidigare, and R.B. Letelier, Long-term changes in phytoplankton community structure and productivity in the North Pacific Subtropical gyre: The domain shift hypothesis, Deep Sea Res. II, 48, 1449-1470, 2001.
Keller, K., R.D. Slater, M. Bender and R.M. Key, Possible biological or physical explanations for decadal scale trends in North Pacific nutrient concentrations and oxygen utilization, Deep-Sea Res. II, 49(1-3), 345-362, 2002.
McPhaden, M.J. and D. Zhang, Slowdown of the meridional overturning circulation in the upper Pacific Ocean, Nature, 415, 603-608, 2002.
Mecking, S., Spatial and temporal patterns of chlorofluorocarbons in the North Pacific thermocline: A data and modeling study, PhD dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 272pp, 2001.
Ono, T; Midorikawa, T; Watanabe, YW; Tadokoro, K; Saino, T, Temporal increases of phosphate and apparent oxygen utilization in the subsurface waters of western subarctic Pacific from 1968 to 1998, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28 (17), 3285-3288, 2001.
Sabine, C.L., R.A. Feely, R.M. Key, J.L. Bullister, F.J. Millero, K. Lee, T.-H. Peng, B. Tilbrook, T. Ono, and C.S. Wong, Distribution of anthropogenic CO2 in the Pacific Ocean, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 16, 4, 1083, doi: 10.1029/2001GB001639, 2002.