El grupo QUIMA ha publicado un nuevo trabajo de
investigación en la revista Science
of The Total Environment, titulado “CO2 fluxes in the
Northeast Atlantic Ocean based on measurements from a surface ocean observation
platform”. Este trabajo de investigación ha sido liderado por David Curbelo-Hernández,
investigador en formación del grupo.
En este trabajo se usan datos medidos a bordo de un buque
de oportunidad (Renate P, NISA-Marítima), en el marco del proyecto CanOA del
programa de investigación cambio entre Fundación Loro Parque y Gobierno de
Canarias. Este buque realiza la ruta desde Canarias hasta Barcelona y permite obtener
una alta frecuencia de datos del sistema del dióxido de carbono. Esta línea de
observación está incluida en el programa ICOS.
A continuación, se presenta el resumen original:
Abstract
The seasonal and
spatial variability of the CO2 system
parameters and CO2 air-sea exchange were studied in the
Northeast Atlantic Ocean between the northwest African coastal upwelling and the oligotrophic
open-ocean waters of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. Data was collected aboard a volunteer observing ship from February
2019 to February 2020. The seasonal and spatial variability of CO2 fugacity in
seawater (fCO2,sw) was strongly driven
by the seasonal temperature variation, which increased with latitude and was
lower throughout the year in coastal regions where the upwelling and offshore
transport was more intense. The thermal to biological effect ratio (T/B) was
approximately 2, with minimum values along the African coastline related to
higher biological activity in the upwelled waters. The fCO2,sw increased from
winter to summer by 11.84 ± 0.28 μatm°C−1 on
the inter-island routes and by 11.71 ± 0.25 μatm°C−1 along
the northwest African continental shelf. The seasonality of total inorganic carbon normalized to constant
salinity of 36.7 (NCT)
was studied throughout the region. The effect of biological processes and
calcification/dissolution on NCT between
February and October represented >90% of the reduction of inorganic carbon
while air-sea exchange described <6%. The seasonality of air-sea CO2 exchange was
controlled by temperature. The surface waters of the entire region acted as a CO2 sink during the
cold months and as a CO2 source
during the warm months. The Canary basin acted as a net sink of
−0.26 ± 0.04 molC m−2 yr−1. The northwest African continental
shelf behaved as a stronger sink at −0.48 ± 0.09 molC m−2 yr−1.
The calculated average CO2 flux
for the entire area was −2.65 ± 0.44 TgCO2 yr−1 (−0.72 ± 0.12
TgC yr−1).