Evolution of the Oceanic 13C Suess Effect in the Southeastern Indian Ocean Between 1994 and 2018

Abstract

Abstract The decrease in δ13C of dissolved inorganic carbon (δ13CDIC) owing to uptake of anthropogenic CO2 (the oceanic 13C Suess effect) in the Southeastern Indian Ocean over the last decade was calculated using an extended multiparameter linear regression technique. Samples collected on the CROCCA‐2S (Coring to Reconstruct Ocean Circulation and Carbon Dioxide Across 2 Seas) cruise in November–December 2018 were compared to samples from the CLIVAR (Climate and Ocean: Variability, Predictability, and Change) and OISO (Océan Indien Service d'Observation) programs from 2007 to 2009. Surface ocean δ13CDIC decreased by an average of −0.53 ± 0.04‰ across this period, at an average rate of −0.053 ± 0.004‰ per year. This rate of δ13CDIC change is an increase from −0.021 ± 0.024‰ per year between 1994 and 2008. We find that the interior water mass most impacted by the oceanic 13C Suess effect between 2008 and 2018 was Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW), within which δ13CDIC decreased by −0.044 ± 0.002‰ per year. Using previously published relationships between the oceanic 13C Suess effect and anthropogenic carbon, we estimate the annual storage of anthropogenic carbon within SAMW in the southeastern Indian Ocean has increased from ∼2.0 ± 0.2 μmol/kg per year between 1994 and 2008 to 5.5 ± 0.6 μmol/kg per year between 2008 and 2018.

Keywords

• carbon cycle
• chemical oceanography
• Indian Ocean
• Southern Ocean
• stable carbon isotopes
• Suess effect