Determination of the Change in Anthropogenic Carbon Content in the Kuroshio Extension over the past 20 years using the C* Method

Senior thesis written for Oceanography 445

[author abstract] The oceans have been observed to be passively absorbing 1/2 of the total anthropogenic CO2 that has been emitted to the atmosphere. The goal of this study is to determine how much anthropogenic carbon has dissolved into the ocean over the past 20 years in a region of the North Pacific known as the Kuroshio Extension. This region of ocean absorbs more CO2 than anywhere else in the Pacific and it is therefore an area of intense research. To determine how much of the dissolved CO2 in the water was of anthropogenic origin, a popular and accurate method known as the C* Method was used. Using this method, the dissolved anthropogenic CO2 was calculated in the Kuroshio Extension region from publically available data for 1993 and 2005. Dissolved anthropogenic CO2 was also calculated for 2013 using data taken on our student cruise in the Kuroshio Extension region that took place from February 24 to March 18th 2013. The results of this study provide a new anthropogenic CO2 uptake rate in the Kuroshio Extension region of 0.936 mol C m-2 yr-1 averaged over the past 20 years.

University of Washington School of Oceanography