Nature Communications (Jan 2022)

Storms drive outgassing of CO2 in the subpolar Southern Ocean

  • Sarah-Anne Nicholson,
  • Daniel B. Whitt,
  • Ilker Fer,
  • Marcel D. du Plessis,
  • Alice D. Lebéhot,
  • Sebastiaan Swart,
  • Adrienne J. Sutton,
  • Pedro M. S. Monteiro

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27780-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Storms dominate the subpolar Southern Ocean, where upwelling CO2 drives outgassing that impacts global CO2 budget, yet how storms modify this outgassing is unknown. Here, the authors present coupled atmosphere-ocean observations to show how storm-driven ocean mixing and circulation cause substantial CO2 variability and outgassing.