Artificial Upwelling—A Refined Narrative
Malte Jürchott, Andreas Oschlies, Wolfgang Koeve
Abstract
Abstract The current narrative of artificial upwelling (AU) is to translocate nutrient rich deep water to the ocean surface, thereby stimulating the biological carbon pump (BCP). Our refined narrative takes the response of the solubility pump and the CO 2 emission scenario into account. Using global ocean‐atmosphere model experiments we show that the effectiveness of a hypothetical maximum AU deployment in all ocean areas where AU is predicted to lower surface pCO 2 , the draw down of CO 2 from the atmosphere during years 2020–2100 depends strongly on the CO 2 emission scenario and ranges from 1.01 Pg C/year (3.70 Pg CO 2 /year) under RCP 8.5 to 0.32 Pg C/year (1.17 Pg CO 2 /year) under RCP 2.6. The solubility pump becomes equally effective compared to the BCP under the highest emission scenario (RCP 8.5), but responds with CO 2 outgassing under low CO 2 emission scenarios.