The Carbon Footprint of the Coastal Ocean

T
billion tons enter the ocean by diffusion. The 2 billion tons
he burning of fossil fuel is do not contribute to global warming but they do make the
polluting the atmosphere with ocean more acidic and disrupt ocean ecosystems. This dis-
ruption could ultimately impact the oceanic carbon cycle
carbon dioxide. Global warming and, specifically, reduce the marine uptake of atmospheric
theory argues that the atmospheric carbon dioxide, exacerbating climate change.
accumulation of CO2 will result in global The average rate at which CO2 is building in the atmosphere
air temperature increases of up to 5°C was established by oceanographer Charles Keeling, who
by 2100. What is often overlooked is the started routinely measuring CO2 in 1958, at the summit
of Mauna Loa volcano in the Hawaiian Islands. Methods
likelihood that the global warming
for measuring CO2 in the ocean were first developed in
problem will be much worse if future the 1920s and the present methods were developed in the
conditions lead to a reduction in the 1960s, but it took 25 years before enough measurements
amount of CO2 absorbed by the oceans. accumulated so that the average rate of CO2 invasion into
the oceans could be calculated. However, the flux of CO2
between the atmosphere and the ocean is highly variable
Marine organisms have historically kept atmospheric CO2 in both time and space, with even the direction of the flux
at levels that are half of what they might be otherwise. Of changing under some circumstances. To better understand
the 7 billion tons of carbon that humans annually produce, how the CO2 flux from and to the atmosphere is mediated
only half remains in the atmosphere. About 1.5 billion by physical and biological processes in the surface ocean,
tons are taken up by the terrestrial biosphere and about 2 MBARI has supported the development and deployment

Figure 17: Sea surface pCO2 data is obtained from shipboard underway analytical systems as well as from autonomous devices installed on moorings and drifters. The photo-
graphs illustrate (left to right) the deployment of a pCO2 drifter, a shipboard pCO2 system, the ships, electronics and analytical package for moorings and drifters, and the
M0/CIMT mooring which is becoming part of the Monterey Bay time series. The time series of coastal pCO2 shown here is a combination of the daily means from the MBARI M1
mooring in Monterey Bay and the larger scale spatial average derived from shipboard measurements between the coast and 55 kilometers offshore. The correlation between
mooring and ship data indicates that the point measurements at the mooring are representative of a much larger domain.

16 Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

 The Carbon Footprint of the Coastal Ocean

of instruments that measure carbon dioxide in the ocean. surface area, there has been great uncertainty as to whether
The conventional measurement is the partial pressure of these regions are net sinks for CO2 or sources of CO2 to the
carbon dioxide (pCO2) which is defined as the concentra- atmosphere. One of the major differences between coastal and
tion of dissolved gas divided by the solubility coefficient. open ocean systems is the dynamic and fluctuating interac-
The solubility coefficient measures how easily the gas dis- tion between physical and biological activity near the coast.
solves in the liquid and varies with temperature and salinity. Coastal upwelling brings water rich in CO2 to the surface,
Temperature is the most significant factor, with warmer where the gas decompresses and comes out of solution, result-
waters holding significantly less CO2. ing in strong but transient CO2 fluxes to the atmosphere.
Upwelling events, however, also stimulate photosynthetic
Growing realization of the importance of the carbon cycle
uptake of CO2 by phytoplankton, which in a matter of days
argues for a CO2 observation system similar in scope to that
depletes near-surface CO2 and causes the ocean to absorb
already developed for oceanic temperature and salinity. Over
CO2 from the atmosphere. Thus the net CO2 flux in coastal
the past decade, Gernot Friederich and MBARI’s biological
upwelling systems is the small difference between two very
oceanography research group, led by Francisco Chavez, have
large, and often uncertain, quantities.
developed autonomous telemetering instruments. These
instruments can now measure sea-air CO2 flux from ships, Observations along the Pacific coast of North America illus-
moorings, and drifters (Figure 17) and are filling in the CO2 trate this strong variability. Figure 19 shows distributions
picture much the same way that CTD (conductivity-tem- of temperature, salinity, and pCO2 in surface waters along
perature-depth) instruments have for ocean salinity and the U.S. west coast for July through September 2005. The
temperature. These developments permit measurements Columbia River plume is clearly seen (colder, low salin-
of sea surface pCO2 with increased resolution and reveal the ity, and low pCO2 values near 46o N latitude), as is coastal
true dynamics of coastal sea-air CO2 exchange. upwelling off Cape Mendocino (colder, high salinity and
very high pCO2 near 40o N latitude). These features are
The carbon cycle in coastal oceans involves carbon input
confined to within 300 kilometers of the coast. The 1997-
from terrestrial environments, upwelling and mixing of
2005 time-series data for surface-water pCO2 observed off
high CO2 water from below, photosynthesis at the sea surface,
Monterey Bay (Figure 17, bottom panel) show the large,
sinking of organic particles, respiration by marine organisms,
rapidly fluctuating sea-air CO2 fluxes during the summer
production and consumption of dissolved organic carbon,
upwelling season in each year, as well as the low pCO2
and sea-air CO2 fluxes (Figure 18). While fluxes in the coastal
periods during the 1997-1998 and 2002-2003 El Niño events.
oceans are large relative to their proportion of the total ocean
In spite of the large seasonal variability, the annual mean
10 Atmospheric pCO2 (~380 ppm)
sea-air pCO2 difference and the net CO2 flux over the waters
Flux (gC m-2 yr -1 )

5
off Monterey Bay (at approximately 37 o N latitude) are now
0
Air/Sea CO2 FLUX known to be close to zero (Figure 18, top panel). Since 1997,
-5 pCO2 data have been collected from shore to 300 kilometers
-300 -250 -200 -150 -100 -50 0
0m Runoff
Figure 18: In the top panel, mean sea-air CO2 flux is calculated from shipboard
Low pCO2 Phytoplankton growth measurements along CalCOFI Line 67. Flux within Monterey Bay (~0-20 kilometers
(~300 ppm)
High offshore) is into the ocean, flux across the active upwelling region (~20-75
Low DIC Offshore transport pCO2 kilometers offshore) is from the ocean, and flux in the California Current (75-300
(~1950 µM)
kilometers offshore) is on average into the ocean. These fluxes result from the
Sinking and subduction processes shown in the bottom panel. High pCO2 California Undercurrent water
upwells nearshore, and is advected offshore into the California Current and into
Monterey Bay

California Decay Monterey Bay. Phytoplankton grow in the upwelled water using CO2 as a carbon
Current g source, and CO2 is drawn to low levels in these areas. Phytoplankton carbon eventu-
ellin
High pCO2 Upw ally sinks or is subducted below the euphotic zone, where it decays, elevating the CO2
(~800 ppm)
California levels of subsurface waters. Where surface CO2 is higher than atmospheric, diffusion
High DIC Undercurrent
75 m (~2150 µM) drives CO2 into the atmosphere; where surface CO2 is lower than atmospheric, diffu-
300 km 150 km Shore sion drives CO2 into the ocean. The net sea-air flux on this spatial scale is near zero.

2005 Annual Report 17

The Carbon Footprint of the Coastal Ocean

offshore during 30 cruises. CO2 is absorbed into the ocean
from the atmosphere in Monterey Bay, vents from the ocean
to the atmosphere across an active upwelling region, and
is again drawn into the ocean across the inshore California
Current. On average, CO2 flux is balanced on this spatial
scale. In accord with this result, the sea-to-air CO2 flux
from the coastal zone surrounding North America is now
thought to be small (about one percent) compared to the
global ocean uptake flux, and hence it does not influence
the global sea-air CO2 budget.
However, coastal waters undergo dramatic variations in
sea-air CO2 flux on small time and space scales (Figure 17,
47N 47N
bottom panel). A unique data set collected from the MBARI
M1 mooring—the only such data set for the coastal ocean
anywhere—shows that flux can change on the order of one
gram of carbon per square meter per day on a day-to-day
basis. These large fluctuations can affect CO2 concentra-
tions over the adjacent continent and need to be accounted
for in determining the influence of the North American
terrestrial biota on atmospheric CO2 concentrations. For
example, one proposed approach inverts very high preci-
sion atmospheric CO2 measurements using atmospheric
circulation models but neglects any influence from sur-
rounding coastal waters. The day-to-day variations shown
in Figure 17 could change atmospheric CO2 concentration
pCO2 (µatm)
enough to affect estimates of air-land flux based on the
550 inversion of atmospheric CO2 data.
500

42N 42N 450 MBARI’s CO2 instrumentation is maturing, data are accu-
400
mulating, and the picture is more nearly complete. The
37N 37N
350
high-resolution raw data reveal rich spatial and tempo-
300

250
ral detail associated with many local processes, both on
32N 32N 200 Monterey Bay and California Current scales. CO2 systems
are also deployed on ships of opportunity and drifters off
27N 27N Central and South America and on moorings in the equato-
rial Pacific. Global-scale processes also affect CO2 flux. For
22N 22N example, because El Niño prolongs and enhances fall and
132.0W 125.5W 121.0W 115.5W 110.0W 132.0W 125.5W 121.0W 115.5W 110.0W
winter conditions, it reduces upwelling of CO2 and biologi-
47N Temperature (oC) 47N Salinity cal uptake along the California coast on interannual time
28 34.0
scales (Figure 17, bottom panel). Conversely, because the
33.5
42N 24 42N La Vieja phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation prolongs
33.0

20 32.5
and enhances spring and summer conditions, it will likely
37N 37N
32.0
cause physical venting of CO2 from the ocean but also
16
31.5
increased biological uptake on decadal time scales. Global
32N 12 32N 31.0 warming scenarios, however, remain so ill-defined that
meaningful predictions cannot now be made regarding the
27N 27N coastal ocean’s role as a potential reservoir for atmospheric
CO2. As people continue to alter the world we live in, such
22N 22N
predictions remain an exceedingly important challenge
132.0W 125.5W 121.0W 115.5W 110.0W
132.0W 125.5W 121.0W 115.5W 110.0W
and will be dependent on instruments and data such as
those highlighted here.
Figure 19: Sea surface data was collected along the west coast of North America during
the late summer and early autumn of 2005 in collaboration with NOAA and Centro de Global warming has the public’s attention. While the book
Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada. The temperature data State of Fear and the movie The Day after Tomorrow take inflamma-
clearly display the upwelling of cold waters along the California/Oregon coast and along tory but opposing views on the impact of warming on civiliza-
sections of northern Baja California. High pCO2 can be seen as a result of recent upwelling tion, MBARI scientists—and many others—are establishing
in northern California, while low pCO2 due to elevated biological activity is evident along and disseminating the science about climate change.
the Oregon, central California and northern Baja California coastlines. Variability in the
offshore regime is dominated by large scale transport and seasonal heating.

18 Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute