Not just going with the flow: does biological production rather than deep water formation drive the Southern Ocean carbon sink?

南大洋被认为吸收了全球约40%的人类(人为)二氧化碳和75%的人为热量，因此在缓解大气中不断上升的二氧化碳水平和相关的气候影响方面具有不成比例的影响。目前对SO碳吸收和历史气候转变的解释侧重于南极洲周围表层和深海之间的相互作用，即影响作为全球倾覆环流一部分的中间和稠密水形成的过程(浮力通量、海冰生产)，以及海洋碳系统如何对此作出反应。然而，新的结果表明，实际上，远离高密度水形成区的远洋生物生产/碳输出是从大气中去除二氧化碳的关键过程，迫使我们重新定义我们对SO碳系统如何运作的理解。该项目将利用来自卫星的新观测、研究巡航、自主生物地球化学浮标部署和生物地球化学海洋同化模型来测试这一改变后的模式，以消除南大洋大西洋部分的碳系统。重点将是确定推动碳吸收的物理和生物学之间的平衡，以及这些平衡在未来可能会发生什么变化。

The Southern Ocean (SO) is thought to have absorbed ~40% of all global human-derived (anthropogenic) carbon dioxide and >75% of anthropogenic heat, thus being disproportionately influential in mitigating increasing atmospheric CO2 levels and related climate effects. Current explanations of SO carbon uptake and historical climate transitions focus on the interaction between the surface and deep ocean around Antarctica, i.e. processes that impact intermediate and dense water formation as part of the global overturning circulation (buoyancy fluxes, sea ice production), and how the marine carbon system responds to them. However, new results suggest that in fact open-ocean biological production / carbon export away from dense water formation regions is the key process by which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere, forcing us to reframe our understanding of how the SO carbon system functions. This project will test this changed paradigm using new observations from satellites, research cruises, autonomous biogeochemical float deployments and a biogeochemical ocean assimilation model to deconvolve the carbon system in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. The focus will be on identifying the balance between physics and biology in driving SO carbon uptake, and how these are likely to change into the future.