In climate studies, it is crucial to distinguish between changes caused by natural variability and those resulting from external forcing. Here we use a suite of numerical experiments based on the ECCO-Darwin ocean biogeochemistry model to separate the impact of the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) growth rate and climate on the ocean carbon sink — with a goal of disentangling the space-time variability of the dominant drivers. When globally integrated, the variable atmospheric growth rate and climate exhibit similar magnitude impacts on ocean carbon uptake. At local scales, interannual variability in air-sea CO₂ flux is dominated by climate. The implications of our study for real-world ocean observing systems are clear: in order to detect future changes in the ocean sink due to slowing atmospheric CO₂ growth rates, better observing systems and constraints on climate-driven ocean variability are required.

中文翻译：

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气海 CO2 通量变化的尺度依赖性驱动因素


在气候研究中，区分自然变率引起的变化和外部强迫引起的变化至关重要。在这里，我们使用了一套基于 ECCO-Darwin 海洋生物地球化学模型的数值实验来分离大气二氧化碳 （CO₂） 增长率和气候对海洋碳汇的影响——目的是解开主要驱动因素的时空变化。当全球一体化时，可变的大气增长率和气候对海洋碳吸收的影响幅度相似。在局部尺度上，气海 CO₂ 通量的年际变化由气候主导。我们的研究对现实世界海洋观测系统的影响是显而易见的：为了检测由于大气_CO2 增长率减慢而导致的海洋沉的未来变化，需要更好的观测系统和对气候驱动的海洋变率的限制。