Ocean iron cycle feedbacks decouple atmospheric CO₂ from meridional overturning circulation changes.

ABSTRACT: The ocean's Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) brings carbon- and nutrient-rich deep waters to the surface around Antarctica. Limited by light and dissolved iron, photosynthetic microbes incompletely consume these nutrients, the extent of which governs the escape of inorganic carbon into the atmosphere. Changes in MOC upwelling may have regulated Southern Ocean outgassing, resulting in glacial-interglacial atmospheric CO₂ oscillations. However, numerical models that explore this positive relationship do not typically include a feedback between biological activity and abundance of organic chelating ligands that control dissolved iron availability. Here, I show that incorporating a dynamic ligand parameterization inverts the modelled MOC-atmospheric CO₂ relationsh

SUBMITTER: Lauderdale JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11231327 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature