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The Southern Ocean at the Last Glacial Maximum a Strong Sink For GLOBAL BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES, VOL. 14, NO. 1, PAGES 455-475, MARCH 2000 The SouthernOcean at the last glacial maximum- A strong sink for atmospheric carbon dioxide J. Keith Moore,• Mark R. Abbott,James G. Richman,and David M. Nelson OregonState Unive•ity, Collegeof Oceanicand AtmosphericSciences Abstract.Analysis of satelliteocean color, sea surface temperature, and sea ice cover datareveals consistent patterns between biological production, iron availability, and physicalforcings in the SouthernOcean. The consistencyof thesepatterns, in conjunctionwith informationon physicalconditions during the lastglacial maximum (LGM), enablesestimates of exportproduction at the LGM. The LGM SouthernOcean experiencedincreased wind speeds, colder sea surface and atmospheric temperatures, increaseddeposition of atmosphericdust, and a greatlyexpanded winter sea ice cover. Thesevariations had strong effects on SouthernOcean ecology and on air-seafluxes of CO2. The seasonalice zone(SIZ) wasmuch larger at the LGM (30 millionkm 2) thanat present(19 millionkm2). The Antarctic Polar Front (PF) likely marked the northern boundaryof thisexpanded SIZ throughoutthe SouthernOcean, as it doestoday in the DrakePassage region. A largenorthward shift in theposition of thePF duringglacial timesis unlikely due to topographicconstraints. North of the PF, the increasedflux of aeoliandust during glacial times altered phytoplankton species composition and increased exportproduction, and as a resultthis region was a strongersink for atmosphericCO2 than in the modem ocean. South of the PF, interactionsbetween the biota and sea ice stronglyinfluence air-sea gas exchange over seasonaltimescales. The combined influenceof meltingsea ice andincreased aeolian dust flux (with its associatediron) increasedboth primary and export production by phytoplanktonover daily-monthly timescalesduring austral spring/summer, resulting in a strongflux of CO2into the ocean. Heavyice coverwould have minimized air-sea gas exchange over much of the restof the year. Thus,an increasednet flux of CO2into the oceanis likely duringglacial times, evenin areaswhere annual primary production declined. We estimatethat export productionin the SouthernOcean as a wholewas increased by 2.9 - 3.6 Gt C yr-• at the LGM, relativeto the modemera. Alteredseasonal sea ice dynamicswould further increasethe net flux of CO2into the ocean. Thus the Southern Ocean was a strongsink for atmosphericCO2 and contributed substantially to the lowering of atmosphericCO2 levelsduring the last ice age. 1. Introduction 1990]. Several analysesof the sedimentaryrecord have arguedfor lower SouthernOcean primary productionat the Martin [1990] argued that the Southem Ocean LGM and concluded that the Southern Ocean was not a surroundingAntarctica was a much stronger sink for strong sink for CO2 at that time [Mortlock et al., 1991; atmosphericcarbon dioxide (CO2) at the last glacial Charles et al., 1991; Shemeshet al., 1993; N•irnberg et al., maximum (LGM) due to an increasein phytoplankton 1997]. In this paper, we presentnew data and arguments, primary productiondriven by elevatedfluxes of iron from which suggestthat the SouthernOcean was indeeda strong continentaldust sources to surfacewaters. This processwas net sink for atmosphericCO2 at the LGM, due to increased termed the iron hypothesisfor explaining the observed phytoplanktonproduction during spring/summer months and loweringof atmosphericCO2 during the lastice age [Martin, reduced outgassingof CO2 during winter monthsdue to heavy sea ice cover. Our analysisis basedlargely on the currentunderstanding of modemSouthern Ocean ecosystems 1Nowat NationalCenter for AtmosphericResearch, Boulder, supplementedwith satellitemeasurements of oceancolor and Colorado. sea ice distributions.Recent analysesof satellitesea surface temperaturedata allows new insightsinto the dynamicsand Copyright2000 by theAmerican Geophysical Union. location of the Antarctic Polar Front (PF) in the modem and glacial oceans[Moore et al., 1997; 1999a]. The arguments Papernumber 1999GB900051 presentedhere are consistentwith the known sedimentary 0886-6236/00/1999GB900051 $12.00 record from the Southern Ocean. Interactions between sea 455 456 MOORE ET AL.: SOUTHERN OCEAN CARBON SINK ice and the biota over seasonal timescales are critical to zooplankton,i.e., krill and copepods,which have long reconcilingthe iron hypothesiswith the sedimentaryrecord. generationtimes comparedto the phytoplankton.These The physicalenvironment of the SouthernOcean at the bloom regions tend to have high f ratios and export LGM, -21,000 yearsago (earlier references cite 18,000years production[Trdguer and Jacques, 1992; Banse, 1996]. The agobased on •4Cdating, see Bard et al. [1990]),was very f ratio, the ratio of new productionto total production, different from that in today'socean. The ice age Southern representsthe fraction of phytoplanktonproduction available Oceanwas markedby coolersea surface temperatures (SST), for exportfrom the surfacelayer over annualtimescales an expanded winter sea ice extent, colder surface air [Dugdaleand Goering,1967; Eppley and Peterson,1979]. temperatures(*-9øC degrees lower on the Antarctic In contrastto thesespatially restricted bloom regions, continent),and an increasein the depositionof atmospheric large portionsof the SouthernOcean have perpetuallylow dust (-15-20 fold) [Hays, 1978; Climate: Long-Range chlorophyll concentrationswhere smaller nano-sizedand Investigation,Mapping, and Prediction (CLIMAP), 1981; pico-sizedphytoplankton dominate [Tregudr and Jacques, Petit et al., 1981, 1990; Jouzel et al., 1987; Pichon et al., 1992; Banse, 1996]. These areas have lower f ratios, low 1992]. In addition,atmospheric CO2 levels were at-200 export production, and perpetually high macronutrient ppm, -80 ppm lower than the modempreindustrial average, concentrations(phosphate 1.5 > •M and nitrate > 20 •M and sea level was 120-150 m lower [Barnola et al., 1987; south of the PF) [Comiso et al., 1993]. The Crowley, 1988]. microzooplankton that graze upon these smaller A role for the high latitudeoceans (in particularthe phytoplankton size have generationtimes comparableto SouthemOcean) in the ice age loweringof atmosphericCO 2 thoseof phytoplanktonand, thus,maintain a tight grazing has been proposedby numerousauthors [e.g., Knox and controlon phytoplanktonbiomass [Sherr and Sherr, 1994]. McElroy, 1984;Siegenthaler and Wenk,1984; Sarmiento and A similar situationexists in the equatorialPacific, another Toggweiler, 1984; Keir, 1988; Broeckerand Peng, 1989; high-nutrient,low-chlorophyll (HNLC) region[Landry et al., Martin, 1990]. Model results demonstratethat primary 1997]. production levels in the Southern Ocean can strongly The bloom regions have elevated dissolved iron influence atmosphericCO2 levels [i.e., Sarmientoand Orr, concentrations relative to other areas of the Southern Ocean, 1991; Joos and Siegenthaler,1991; Sarmientoand Le Qudrd, at leastpart of the time [Martin et al., 1990a,b; de Baar et 1996]. Martin [1990, 1992] and Martin et al. [1990a, al., 1995; Sedwick and DiTullio, 1997; Sedwick et al., 1997]. 1990b] suggestedrelease from iron limitation by increased Bottle incubation experiments indicate that offshore atmospheric deposition as a mechanism for increased phytoplankton respond to iron additions with increased SouthernOcean productivityat the LGM. growth rates and biomass and with a shift in species Atmosphericdust levels were muchhigher at the LGM compositiontoward larger diatoms [Martin et al., 1990b; [Petit et al., 1981, 1990]. This increaseddust deposition was Hebling et al., 1991; de Baar et al., 1995; Van Leeuweet al., a global phenomenonwith greatly increaseddust inputs 1997; Scharek et al., 1997; Takeda, 1998]. These results relative to modem times recorded in Greenland and imply that increasing iron levels in situ would increase Antarctica ice cores [Petit et al., 1981; De Angelis et al., export production, as happens in the other HNLC areas 1997]. Petit et al. [1981] found continental aerosolflux on [Coale et al., 1996; Gordon et al., 1997; Hutchins et al., the Antarctic continentwas - 20 times higher at the end of 1998; see also Sunda and Huntsman, 1997]. the last glacial period. Similarly, Petit et al. [1990] Recently,the SouthernOcean Iron ReleaseExperiment estimated that mean dust flux to the Antarctic continent at (SOIREE) providedfurther evidence that waterssouth of the the LGM was 15 times higherthan Holocenelevels. Kumar PF are indeed iron limited [Boyd et al., 1999]. In this et al. [1995] found that iron flux to the sediments in the experimenta large patch of seawater(at 141øE,61øS) was South Atlantic increasedby more than a factor of 5 at the fertilized with iron additions over a 13-day period, and a LGM. suite of measurements was made both within the Severalstudies have examinedchlorophyll distributions iron-fertilizedpatch and in adjacentwaters. Over this period, in the SouthernOcean using the previousgeneration ocean chlorophyll levels increasedmarkedly, and the pCO2 of color sensor, the Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) surfacewaters decreased in the iron-enrichedpatch [Boyd et [Comiso et al., 1993; Sullivan et al., 1993]. The CZCS al., 1999]. This experimentprovides dramatic evidence that studies,new data from the Sea-viewingWide Field-of-view the availability of iron limits phytoplankton biomass Sensor (SeaWiFS) and in situ measurementsindicate that accumulationwithin the SouthernOcean today. phytoplanktonblooms where chlorophyllconcentrations > Martin [1990]
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