Article Dans Une Revue Journal of Geophysical Research. Oceans Année : 2024

The Ocean's Meridional oxygen transport

Résumé

Quantification of oxygen uptake at the ocean surface and its surface-to-interior pathways is crucial for understanding oxygen concentration change in a warming ocean. We investigate the mean meridional global oxygen transport between 1950 and 2009 using coupled physical-biogeochemical model output. We introduce a streamfunction in latitude-oxygen coordinates to reduce complexity in the description of the mean meridional oxygen pathways. The meridional oxygen transport occurs in two main cells: (a) the Northern Cell, dominated by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, is nearly adiabatic in the Northern Hemisphere, and transports well oxygenated waters equatorward; (b) The Southern Cell, strongly diabatic, is shaped by the circulation in the Indo-Pacific basin, and combines the subtropical and abyssal meridional circulation cells when represented in depth-latitude coordinates. Analysis of isopycnal meridional oxygen transport shows that the northward flow from the Southern Ocean transports well oxygenated waters within intermediate and bottom layers, while oxygen-rich waters reach the Southern Ocean within deep layers (27.6 < σ 0 < 27.9 kg m$^{-3}$), carried by the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW). This oxygenated NADW loses around 25% of its oxygen concentration along its meridional journey from the North Atlantic (at 55°N) to the Southern Ocean. These insights into the oxygen dynamics as driven by the meridional overturning circulation provide a new framework for future studies on ocean deoxygenation.

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Dates et versions

hal-04731256 , version 1 (10-10-2024)

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Esther Portela, Nicolas Kolodziejczyk, Thomas Gorgues, Jan Zika, Coralie Perruche, et al.. The Ocean's Meridional oxygen transport. Journal of Geophysical Research. Oceans, 2024, 129 (3), pp.e2023JC020259. ⟨10.1029/2023jc020259⟩. ⟨hal-04731256⟩
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