INTERANNUAL VARIABILITY IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN CARBON SINK.

Reference

Gruber, N., N.Bates, and C.D. Keeling, Interannual variability in the North Atlantic Ocean carbon sink,
Science, 298, 2374-2378, 2002.

Abstract
The North Atlantic represents the largest sink for atmospheric CO2 in the northern hemisphere,
yet little is known about its temporal variability. Here we report observations from a long time-series
of upper ocean inorganic carbon parameters from the subtropical North Atlantic near Bermuda that
indicate substantial variability in the North Atlantic carbon sink. We find that the variability in carbon
dynamics at this site is largely driven by variations in winter mixed layer depths and sea-surface
temperature (SST) anomalies, whose variability are significantly correlated with the North Atlantic
Oscillation (NAO).Since variations in mixed layer depths and SST tend to occur in basin-wide
coordinated pattern associated with NAO, it is feasible that the entire North Atlantic might vary in
concert with Bermuda, resulting in a variability of the strength of the North Atlantic carbon sink of
about +/- 0.3 PgC \yrr (1 Pg = 10$^{15}$g), or nearly +/-50%. This extrapolation, while rather
speculative, is supported by basin-wide estimates on the basis of atmospheric CO2 inversions.

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