Climate change and terrigenous inputs decrease the efficiency of the future Arctic Ocean’s biological carbon pump

2025/01/06 by Laurent Oziel, Özgür Gürses, Sinhué Torres‐Valdés +12 · 1 voice · 28 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Arctic #Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics #Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics #Biogeochemical cycle #Biogeochemistry #Biological pump #Carbon cycle #Carbon sink #Climate change #Ecology #Ecosystem #Environmental science #Geology #Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena #Oceanography #Structural basin #Terrigenous sediment

paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/s41558-024-02233-6

published in Nature Climate Change 15(2), 171-179 (Nature Portfolio)

openalex publication_date 2025/01/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

Abstract The Arctic experiences climate changes that are among the fastest in the world and affect all Earth system components. Despite expected increase in terrigenous inputs to the Arctic Ocean, their impacts on biogeochemical cycles are currently largely neglected in IPCC-like models. Here we used a state-of-the-art high-resolution ocean biogeochemistry model that includes carbon and nutrient inputs from rivers and coastal erosion to produce twenty-first-century pan-Arctic projections. Surprisingly, even with an anticipated rise in primary production across a wide range of emission scenarios, our findings indicate that climate change will lead to a counterintuitive 40% reduction in the efficiency of the Arctic’s biological carbon pump by 2100, to which terrigenous inputs contribute 10%. Terrigenous inputs will also drive intense coastal CO 2 outgassing, reducing the Arctic Ocean’s carbon sink by at least 10% (33 TgC yr −1 ). These unexpected reinforced feedback, mostly due to accelerated remineralization rates, lower the Arctic Ocean’s capacity for sequestering carbon.

Citations

• Absorption spectral slopes and slope ratios as indicators of molecular weight, source, and photobleaching of chromophoric dissolved organic matter

Cited by

• Warming transforms the western Arctic Ocean into a hub of drifting matter
• Major terrestrial contribution to the dissolved organic carbon budget in the Arctic Ocean
• Interannual variability in terrestrial dissolved organic matter advection to the eastern East Siberian Sea under contrasting Beaufort Gyre conditions. [europepmc]
• Sea Ice Loss leads to regime shifts in the arctic biological pump. [europepmc]
• Water Masses of the Arctic from 40 Years of Hydrographic Observations. [europepmc]
• Benthic foraminiferal colonisation of phytodetritus during spring bloom within the marginal sea ice zone off Northern Svalbard continental margin. [europepmc]
• Warming transforms the western Arctic Ocean into a hub of drifting matter. [europepmc]
• Hotspots of Arctic and sub-Arctic marine sediment organic carbon are dominated by the Baltic, Barents and Chukchi Seas. [europepmc]

Discussions

• Massive piece of work by Laurent Oziel and many #AWI colleagues, conducted within the #COMFORT project: Laurent conducted future 🌊 Arctic Ocean high-resolution simulations that account for climate c [bsky, 48 points, 2 comments]

Related

• Contrasting effects of river and erosion-derived inputs on Arctic Ocean acidification
• Around one third of current Arctic Ocean primary production sustained by rivers and coastal erosion
• Sensitivity of the carbon cycle in the Arctic to climate change
• The Arctic Ocean carbon sink
• The changing Arctic Ocean: consequences for biological communities, biogeochemical processes and ecosystem functioning