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Simulation of export production and biological pump structure in the South China Sea

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Abstract

The export flux of particulate organic carbon (POC) consumes upwelled dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), which hinders surplus CO2 being released to the atmosphere. The export flux of POC is therefore crucial to the carbon and biogeochemical cycles. This study aims to model the long-term (1958–2009) variation of export flux and structure of the biological pump in the South China Sea (SCS) using a three-dimensional physical-biogeochemical coupled (ROMS-CoSiNE) model. The modeled POC export flux in the northeastern and north central SCS is high in winter and low in summer, whereas the flux in the central, southwestern and southern SCS varies following a “W” shape: two maxima in winter and summer, and two minima in spring and autumn. The pattern follows the variation of the East Asian monsoon and is consistent with observations. On the interannual scale, export flux is anti-phased with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation such that El Niño (La Niña) conditions correspond to low (high) export flux. Modeled annual mean POC export flux reaches up to 1.95 mmol m–2 day–1, which is underestimated comparing with field observations. The f-ratio is estimated to be ~0.4. The b value of the Martin equation for POC is 1.18±0.03. Remineralization rate of POC is greater than the classical Martin equation but is consistent with its subtropical counterparts. The modeled results indicate that the SCS is a weak source of atmospheric CO2 with a flux estimated at 1.0 mmol m–2 day–1. The modeled results provide an insight of the temporal and spatial variability of the carbon cycle in this monsoon-driven, semi-enclosed basin.

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Acknowledgements

Constructive comments from two reviewers and the editors are acknowledged. Funding for this research was provided by the NSFC (Grant No. 41206033, 91128208) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2014M560350). J.T. was supported by the Shanghai Shuguang Program (11SG24) and program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-08-0401). The computation was facilitated by the University of Maine High Performance Computing Center.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Wentao Ma & Jun Tian

  2. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Wentao Ma

  3. School of Marine Sciences, University of Maine, Orono, ME, 04469, USA

    Fei Chai & Huijie Xue

  4. State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Peng Xiu

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Ma, W., Chai, F., Xiu, P. et al. Simulation of export production and biological pump structure in the South China Sea. Geo-Mar Lett 34, 541–554 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-014-0384-0

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