Resolving ecological feedbacks on the ocean  carbon sink in Earth system models

Armstrong McKay, David I.; Cornell, Sarah E.; Richardson, Katherine; Rockström, Johan

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-797-2021

Articles | Volume 12, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-797-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-797-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 3

Research article

|

14 Jul 2021

Research article |

| 14 Jul 2021

Resolving ecological feedbacks on the ocean carbon sink in Earth system models

David I. Armstrong McKay, Sarah E. Cornell, Katherine Richardson, and Johan Rockström

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-12-797-2021-supplement

Data sets

derpy- code/cgenie.muffin: Crichton et al. [revised for GMD] A. Ridgwell, C. Reinhard, S. van de Velde, M Adloff, DomHu, J. Wilson, B. Ward, F. Monteiro, and P. Vervoort https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3999080

derpycode/muffindoc: Crichton et al. [2020] (GMD) (version v0.9.13) A. Ridgwell, DomHu, C. Peterson, B. Ward, sjszas, evansmn, and R. Jones https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4305997

seao2.info: cGENIE.muffin Earth system model resources A. J. Ridgwell https://www.seao2.info/mymuffin.html

The RCP greenhouse gas concentrations and their extensions from 1765 to 2300 (http://www.pik-potsdam.de/~mmalte/rcps/) M. Meinshausen, S. J. Smith, K. Calvin, J. S. Daniel, M. L. T. Kainuma, J.-F. Lamarque, K. Matsumoto, S. A. Montzka, S. C. B. Raper, K. Riahi, A. Thomson, G. J. M. Velders, and D. P. P. van Vuuren https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-011-0156-z

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Short summary

We use an Earth system model with two new ocean ecosystem features (plankton size traits and temperature-sensitive nutrient recycling) to revaluate the effect of climate change on sinking organic carbon (the biological pump) and the ocean carbon sink. These features lead to contrary pump responses to warming, with a combined effect of a smaller sink despite a more resilient pump. These results show the importance of including ecological dynamics in models for understanding climate feedbacks.