[en] The role of sea ice in the carbon cycle is minimally represented in current Earth System Models (ESMs). Among potentially important flaws, mentioned by several authors and generally overlooked during ESM design, is the link between sea-ice growth and melt and oceanic dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and total alkalinity (TA). Here we investigate whether this link is indeed an important feature of the marine carbon cycle misrepresented in ESMs. We use an ocean general circulation model (NEMO-LIM-PISCES) with sea-ice and marine carbon cycle components, forced by atmospheric reanalyses, adding a first-order representation of DIC and TA storage and release in/from sea ice. Our results suggest that DIC rejection during sea-ice growth releases several hundred Tg C yr−1
to the surface ocean, of which < 2% is exported to depth, leading
to a notable but weak redistribution of DIC towards deep polar basins. Active carbon processes (mainly CaCO3
precipitation but also ice-atmosphere CO2
fluxes and net community production) increasing the
TA/DIC ratio in sea-ice modified ocean-atmosphere CO2 fluxes by a few Tg C yr−1 in the sea-ice zone, with
specific hemispheric effects: DIC content of the Arctic basin decreased but DIC content of the Southern Ocean increased. For the global ocean, DIC content increased by 4 Tg C yr−1
or 2 Pg C after 500 years of
model run. The simulated numbers are generally small compared to the present-day global ocean annual CO2 sink (2.6 ± 0.5 Pg C yr−1
). However, sea-ice carbon processes seem important at regional scales as they act
significantly on DIC redistribution within and outside polar basins. The efficiency of carbon export to depth depends on the representation of surface-subsurface exchanges and their relationship with sea ice, and could differ substantially if a higher resolution or different ocean model were used.
Research center :
FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Moreau, Sébastien
Vancoppenolle, Martin
Bopp, Laurent
Aumont, Oliver
Madec, Gurvan
Delille, Bruno ; Université de Liège > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO) > Département d'astrophys., géophysique et océanographie (AGO)
Tison, Jean-Louis
Barriat, Pierre-Yves
Goosse, Hugues
Language :
English
Title :
Assessment of the sea-ice carbon pump: Insights from a three-dimensional ocean-sea-ice biogeochemical model (NEMO-LIM-PISCES)
BELSPO - SPP Politique scientifique - Service Public Fédéral de Programmation Politique scientifique F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique [BE]
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