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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 2, NUMBER 2, FEBRUARY 1989

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
ATMOSPHERIC CO₂

Item #d89feb51

"Satellite Determination of the Carbon Dioxide Exchange Coefficient at the Ocean-Atmosphere Interface: A First Step," J. Etcheto (Lab. d'Océanog. Dynamique et de Climatology, Univ. Pierre et Marie Curie, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France), L. Merlivat, J. Geophys. Res., 93(C12), 15,669-15,678, Dec. 15, 1988.

Satellite data along with wind determinations derived from Seasat scatterometer data taken over 3 months were used to infer a global exchange coefficient map. This map, combined with a global map of partial pressure gradient of CO₂, was used to estimate the net flux on a worldwide scale.

Item #d89feb52

"The Role of Vertical Chemical Fractionation in Controlling Late Quaternary Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide," E.A. Boyle (Dept. Earth Sci., Mass. Inst. Technol., Cambridge MA 02139), ibid., 15,701-15,714.

Presents a new model to explain late quaternary CO₂ variability and resolve problems of previous models. The primary driving factor is a rearrangement of chemical distributions in the ocean where labile nutrients and metabolic CO₂ are concentrated in deep waters instead of intermediate waters as observed in the modern ocean. Processes involved are illustrated in a simple equilibrium five-box ocean model.

Item #d89feb53

"Distributions and Variations of Oceanic Carbon Dioxide in the Western North Pacific, Eastern Indian, and Southern Ocean South of Australia," H. Inoue (Geochem. Lab., Meteorolog. Res. Inst., Nagamine 1-1, Yatabe, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan), Y. Sugimura, Tellus, 40B(4), 308-320, Sep. 1988.

The pCO₂ in surface seawater was high in high latitudes and coastal and equatorial regions, and low in the subtropics. Two kinds of periodicities during the annual cycle, that are caused by variations in seawater temperature, vertical mixing and biological activities, were found off Japan's coast. The pCO₂ in surface seawater obtained in the boreal winters of 1969 and 1984 suggests an increase due to the enhancement of CO₂ flux from air to sea.

Item #d89feb54

"Measuring Correlations Between Atmospheric Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide Mole Fractions: A Preliminary Study in Urban Air," R.F. Keeling (Harvard Univ., E.S.L., 40 Oxford St., Cambridge MA 02138), J. Atmos. Chem., 7(2), 153-176, Aug. 1988.

A two-day sampling of air in Cambridge, Massachusetts was monitored for O2 and CO₂. Changes in O2 were shown to be strongly anticorrelated with changes in CO₂, as expected for combustion processes. The demonstrated instrumental capabilities are appropriate for measuring changes in O2 mole fraction in background air, which could be of importance to a broad range of biogeochemical studies.

Item #d89feb55

Comment and reply on "Biotic Changes Consistent With Increased Seasonal Amplitude of Atmospheric CO₂ Concentrations" by R.A. Houghton, J. Geophys. Res., 93(D2), 1745-1748, Feb. 20, 1988.

Item #d89feb56

"Iron Deficiency Limits Phytoplankton Growth in the North-East Pacific Subarctic," J.H. Martin (Moss Landing Marine Lab., Moss Landing CA 95039), S.E. Fitzwater, Nature, 331(6154), 341-343, Jan. 28, 1988.

Laboratory studies on water with its resident phytoplankton, collected from the northeast Pacific, showed that Fe deficiency is limiting phytoplankton growth in these major nutrient-rich waters. Proposes that Fe availability may be important in determining global atmospheric CO₂ levels and affecting global climate. Postulates that the enhanced supply of Fe from the atmosphere stimulated photosynthesis, which led to the drawdown in atmospheric CO₂ levels during glacial maxima.