Seasonal variations in the aragonite saturation state in the upper open-ocean waters of the North Pacific Ocean

Tae Wook Kim, Geun Ha Park, Dongseon Kim, Kitack Lee, Richard A. Feely, Frank J. Millero

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    7 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Seasonal variability of the aragonite saturation state (ΩAR) in the upper (50 m and 100 m depths) North Pacific Ocean (NPO) was investigated using multiple linear regression (MLR). The MLR algorithm derived from a high-quality carbon data set accurately predicted the ΩAR of evaluation data sets (three time series stations and P02 section) with acceptable uncertainty (<0.1 ΩAR). The algorithm was combined with seasonal climatology data, and the estimated ΩAR varied in the range of 0.4-0.6 in the midlatitude western NPO, with the largest variation found for the tropical eastern NPO. These marked variations were largely controlled by seasonal changes in vertical mixing and thermocline depth, both of which determine the degree of entrainment of CO2-rich corrosive waters from deeper depths. Our MLR-based subsurface ΩAR climatology is complementary to surface climatology based on pCO2 measurements.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)4498-4506
    Number of pages9
    JournalGeophysical Research Letters
    Volume42
    Issue number11
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015 Jun 16

    Bibliographical note

    Publisher Copyright:
    ©2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

    Keywords

    • North Pacific Ocean
    • aragonite saturation state
    • fossil fuel CO2
    • mutiple linear regression
    • ocean acidification

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Geophysics
    • General Earth and Planetary Sciences

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