Recientemente ha sido publicado un nuevo
trabajo de investigación realizado por el grupo QUIMA (IOCAG-ULPGC),
titulado: Air-Sea
CO2 Exchange in the Strait of Gibraltar. Este trabajo ha sido publicado en
la revista internacional y Q1 (JCR) Frontiers in Marine Science y se
puede leer en este link.
Este trabajo, liderado
por el investigador predoctoral David Curbelo, está centrado en la variabilidad
estacional y espacial del sistema del dióxido de carbono y los flujos
aire-océano en aguas superficiales del Estrecho de Gibraltar entre Febrero de
2019 y Marzo de 2021.
El resumen (abstract)
del trabajo es el siguiente:
The seasonal and spatial variability of the CO2 system and air-sea fluxes were studied in
surface waters of the Strait of Gibraltar between February 2019 and March 2021.
High-resolution data was collected by a surface ocean observation platform
aboard a volunteer observing ship. The CO2 system was strongly influenced by
temperature and salinity fluctuations forced by the seasonal and spatial
variability in the depth of the Atlantic–Mediterranean Interface layer and by
the tidal and wind-induced upwelling. The changes in seawater CO2 fugacity (fCO2,sw) and fluxes were mainly driven by temperature despite the
significant influence of non-thermal processes in the southernmost part. The
thermal to non-thermal effect ratio (T/B) reached maximum values in the
northern section (>1.8) and minimum values in the southern section
(<1.30). The fCO2,sw increased with temperature by 9.02 ± 1.99 μatm °C–1 (r2 = 0.86 and ρ = 0.93)
and 4.51 ± 1.66 μatm °C–1 (r2 = 0.48 and ρ = 0.69) in the northern and southern sections, respectively. The annual
cycle of total inorganic carbon normalized to a constant salinity of 36.7 (NCT) was assessed. Net community production processes
described 93.5–95.6% of the total NCT change, while air-sea exchange and horizontal and
vertical advection accounted for <4.6%. The fCO2,sw in the Strait of Gibraltar since 1999 has been fitted
to an equation with an interannual trend of 2.35 ± 0.06 μatm year–1 and a standard error of estimate of ±12.8 μatm. The seasonality of the air-sea CO2 fluxes reported the behavior as a strong CO2 sink during the cold months and as a weak CO2 source during the warm months. Both the
northern and the southern sections acted as a net CO2 sink of −0.82 and −1.01 mol C m–2 year–1, respectively. The calculated average CO2 flux for the entire area was −7.12 Gg CO2 year–1 (−1.94 Gg C year–1).
Este trabajo ha sido posible gracias a la colaboración del barco RENATE P (Nisa-Maritima), donde están instalados los equipos de medida.
