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Acidification at the Surface in the East Sea: A Coupled Climate-carbon Cycle Model Study

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Abstract

This modeling study investigates the impacts of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration on acidification in the East Sea. A historical simulation for the past three decades (1980 to 2010) was performed using the Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model (version 2), a coupled climate model with atmospheric, terrestrial and ocean cycles. As the atmospheric CO2 concentration increased, acidification progressed in the surface waters of the marginal sea. The acidification was similar in magnitude to observations and models of acidification in the global ocean. However, in the global ocean, the acidification appears to be due to increased in-situ oceanic CO2 uptake, whereas local processes had stronger effects in the East Sea. pH was lowered by surface warming and by the influx of water with higher dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) from the northwestern Pacific. Due to the enhanced advection of DIC, the partial pressure of CO2 increased faster than in the overlying air; consequently, the in-situ oceanic uptake of CO2 decreased.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physical Oceanography Division, KIOST, Busan, 49111, Korea

    Young-Gyu Park & Seongbong Seo

  2. Department of Integrated Ocean Science, University of Science & Technology, Daejeon, 34113, Korea

    Young-Gyu Park & Seongbong Seo

  3. Forecast Division, Korea Institute of Atmospheric Prediction Systems, Seoul, 07071, Korea

    Kyung-Hee Seol

  4. National Institute of Meteorological Sciences, Korea Meteorological Administration, Seogwipo, 63568, Korea

    Kyung-On Boo, Johan Lee, Chunho Cho & Young-Hwa Byun

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  1. Young-Gyu Park
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  2. Kyung-Hee Seol
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  3. Kyung-On Boo
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  4. Johan Lee
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  6. Young-Hwa Byun
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Correspondence to Young-Gyu Park.

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Park, YG., Seol, KH., Boo, KO. et al. Acidification at the Surface in the East Sea: A Coupled Climate-carbon Cycle Model Study. Ocean Sci. J. 53, 437–448 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12601-018-0018-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12601-018-0018-y

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