Variable C∕P composition of organic production and its effect on ocean carbon storage in glacial-like model simulations

Abstract

During the four most recent glacial maxima, atmospheric CO2 has been lowered by about 90–100 ppm with respect to interglacial concentrations. It is likely that most of the atmospheric CO2 deficit was stored in the ocean. Changes in the biological pump, which are related to the efficiency of the biological carbon uptake in the surface ocean and/or of the export of organic carbon to the deep ocean, have been proposed as a key mechanism for the increased glacial oceanic CO2 storage. The biological pump is strongly constrained by the amount of available surface nutrients. In models, it is generally assumed that the ratio between elemental nutrients, such as phosphorus, and carbon (C∕P ratio) in organic material is fixed according to the classical Redfield ratio. The constant Redfield ratio appears to approximately hold when averaged over basin scales, but observations document highly variable C∕P ratios on regional scales and between species. If the C∕P ratio increases when phosphate availability is scarce, as observations suggest, this has the potential to further increase glacial oceanic CO2 storage in response to changes in surface nutrient distributions. In the present study, we perform a sensitivity study to test how a phosphate-concentration-dependent C∕P ratio influences the oceanic CO2 storage in an Earth system model of intermediate complexity (cGENIE). We carry out simulations of glacial-like changes in albedo, radiative forcing, wind-forced circulation, remineralization depth of organic matter, and mineral dust deposition. Specifically, we compare model versions with the classical constant Redfield ratio and an observationally motivated variable C∕P ratio, in which the carbon uptake increases with decreasing phosphate concentration. While a flexible C∕P ratio does not impact the model's ability to simulate benthic δ13C patterns seen in observational data, our results indicate that, in production of organic matter, flexible C∕P can further increase the oceanic storage of CO2 in glacial model simulations. Past and future changes in the C∕P ratio thus have implications for correctly projecting changes in oceanic carbon storage in glacial-to-interglacial transitions as well as in the present context of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

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