Increase in anthropogenic CO2 in the Atlantic Ocean in the last two decades

Data from the first systematic survey of inorganic carbon parameters on a global scale, the GEOSECS program, are compared with those collected during WOCE/JGOFS to study the changes in carbon and other geochemical properties, and anthropogenic CO2 increase in the Atlantic Ocean from the 1970s to the early 1990s. This first data-based estimate of CO2 increase over this period was accomplished by adjusting the GEOSECS data set to be consistent with recent high-quality carbon data. Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and extended Multiple Linear Regression (eMLR) analyses to these carbon data are applied by regressing DIC with potential temperature, salinity, AOU, silica, and PO4 in three latitudinal regions for the western and eastern basins in the Atlantic Ocean. The results from MLR (and eMLR provided in parentheses) indicate that the mean anthropogenic CO2 uptake rate in the western basin is 0.70 (0.53) mol m−2 yr−1 for the region north of 15°N; 0.53 (0.36) mol m−2 yr−1 for the equatorial region between 15°N and 15°S; and 0.83 (0.35) mol m−2 yr−1 in the South Atlantic south of 15°S. For the eastern basin an estimate of 0.57 (0.45) mol m−2 yr−1 is obtained for the equatorial region, and 0.28 (0.34) mol m−2 yr−1 for the South Atlantic south of 15°S. The results of using eMLR are systematically lower than those from MLR method in the western basin. The anthropogenic CO2 increase is also estimated in the upper thermocline from salinity normalized DIC after correction for AOU along the isopycnal surfaces. For these depths the results are consistent with the CO2 uptake rates derived from both MLR and eMLR methods.