Central Arctic Ocean surface-atmosphere exchange of CO2 and CH4 constrained by direct measurements

Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2024

The central Arctic Ocean (CAO) plays an important role in the global carbon cycle, but the current and future exchange of the climate-forcing trace gases methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) between the CAO and the atmosphere is highly uncertain. In particular, there are very few observations of near-surface gas concentrations or direct air-sea CO2 flux estimates and no previously reported direct air-sea CH4 flux estimates from the CAO. Furthermore, the effect of sea ice on the exchange is not well understood. We present direct measurements of the air-sea flux of CH4 and CO2, as well as air-snow fluxes of CO2 in the summertime CAO north of 82.5 N from the Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) expedition carried out on the Swedish icebreaker Oden in 2021. Measurements of air-sea CH4 and CO2 flux were made using floating chambers deployed in leads accessed from sea ice and from the side of Oden, and air-snow fluxes were determined from chambers deployed on sea ice. Gas transfer velocities determined from fluxes and surface-water-dissolved gas concentrations exhibited a weaker wind speed dependence than existing parameterisations, with a median sea-ice lead gas transfer rate of 2.5cmh-1 applicable over the observed 10m wind speed range (1-11ms-1). The average observed air-sea CO2 flux was -7.6mmolm-2d-1, and the average air-snow CO2 flux was -1.1mmolm-2d-1. Extrapolating these fluxes and the corresponding sea-ice concentrations gives an August and September flux for the CAO of -1.75mmolm-2d-1, within the range of previous indirect estimates. The average observed air-sea CH4 flux of 3.5μmolm-2d-1, accounting for sea-ice concentration, equates to an August and September CAO flux of 0.35μmolm-2d-1, lower than previous estimates and implying that the CAO is a very small (‰ 1%) contributor to the Arctic flux of CH4 to the atmosphere.