Variability of the parameters

of the CO2 system in the

continental shelf of Ceará

Andréa Carvalho, Nathalie Lefèvre, Rozane Marins, Roseline Torres

The global carbon budget
Sources and Sinks

Climatology of Takahashi et al., 2009

Processes affecting CO2 in the ocean

www.pmel.noaa.gov
Processes Impact on fCO2
Warming Increase of 4%/oC (thermodynamical relationship)

Increase of salinity Increase of fCO2

Chlorophyll production Decrease of fCO2 (photosynthesis)

Upwelling Increase of surface fCO2

The coastal ocean: a source or a sink
for atmospheric CO2?
• Impact of rivers (Amazon): large blooms of diatoms
create CO2 drawdowns SOURCE OF CO2
ATM

SINK OF CO2

Lefèvre et al., 2010

Jaguaribe River
Objectives

• Generate the first field measurements of the CO2

parameters for the region;

• Describe the surface distribution of the carbon properties;

• Understand the processes (physical/biological) that

influcence the CO2 distribution in the sea surface and;

• Determine the air-sea flux of CO2 during the dry season.

The Cruise

Measurements:
BRAZIL •Physical Parameters (CTD, Thermosal)
•CO2 parameters (TCO2,TA,pCO2)
•Chlorophyll a
•Dissolved Oxygen
Spatial Distribution of pCO2

SST= 26.73 ±0.14 SSS= 36.46± 0.21

TCO2 and TA

TCO2= 2059.2 ±4.6 µmol.Kg-1 TA= 2397.7 ±5.3 µmol.Kg-1

2075,0 TA=f(S)
2450
2070,0 Core…
2440
2065,0
2430
2060,0
TCO2

2420
2055,0
TA

2410
2050,0
2400
2045,0 y = 0,6341x + 538,9
2390
R² = 0,5685
2040,0 2380
2380,0 2390,0 2400,0 2410,0 36 36,2 36,4 36,6 36,8 37
TA Salinity
 Chlorophyll a

Method of Jeffrey and Humphrey (1975)

Mean Chlorophyll= 0.09 ± 0.09µg.L-1
Dissolved Oxygen

• Winkler 1888

Mean DO = 6.5 ± 0.15 mg.L-1

Air – sea flux of CO2
F = k(wind).Ko.(T, S).(fCO2 sea – fCO2 air)

k= 0.27 wsp2 (Sc/660)-0.5

F > 0  SOURCE
Ko = Solubility of CO2 (Weiss, 1974)
F < 0  SINK

Measurements:
Mean fCO2 sea= 401.6±8.6 µatm
Mean fCO2 air= 375.8 µatm

Mean Flux of CO2 to the atmosphere= 3.53 ±1.15 mmol.m-2.day-1

Conclusions
• Predominance of physical processes over biological
processes;
• A source of CO2 to the atmosphere in October
2012;
• Mean Flux CO2= 3.53 ±1.15 mmol.m-2.day-1 and;
• No riverine influence observed during this season.

And Perspectives
Determine the seasonal variability (measurements during
the wet season).
Special thanks
• ECMWF ERA-Interim wind data from the ECMWF data server
• The service national SNAPO-CO2 (LOCEAN, Paris) for the analyses
of dissolved inorganic carbon and total alkalinity.

Acknowledgements
ANEXOS
Parameters of the CO2 system
4 parameters: fCO2, DIC, TA and pH
pCO2 and fCO2 : non ideal gas
DIC = [CO2]* + [CO32-] + [HCO3-] µmol kg-1
TA: bicarbonate (HCO3-) and carbonate (CO3--) µmol. Kg-1
pH: monitoring acidification

Knowing 2 parameters we can calculate the other two:

pH TA DIC fCO2
pH, TA - - ± 3.8 ± 2.1 Errors made on the
pH, DIC - ± 2.7 - ± 1.8 calculation of the carbon
TA, DIC ± 0.0062 - - ± 5.8 parameters from the
TA, fCO2 ± 0.0021 - ± 3.4 - measurements of two of
them
DIC, ± 0.0023 ± 3.0 - -
fCO2 (Millero, 1995; Zeebe and
Wolf-Gladrow,2007)
fCO2, pH - ± 18 ± 15 -
• Seawater samples were taken for surface
analysis chlorophyll a according to Jefrey and
Humphey 1970
• inorganic carbon (TCO2) and total alkalinity
(TA) using potenctiometric titration derived
from the method developed by Edmond
(Edmond, 1970) with a closed cell.
 2075,0

2070,0

2065,0

DICx TA 2060,0

DIC
2055,0

2050,0

2045,0

2040,0
2380,0 2385,0 2390,0 2395,0 2400,0 2405,0 2410,0
TA

TA=f(S)
2450
Corenav 3
2440

2430

2420
SSS x TA
TA

2410

2400

2390

2380
36 36,2 36,4 36,6 36,8 37
Salinity
The CO2 System

Successive measurements:
• CO2 standards
• Seawater
• Atm air
• Repeat cycle: standards…

CO2 standards (air with

known CO2 concentration:
280 ppm, 360 ppm, 500 ppm)
• The partial pressures of CO2 (pCO2 ) for the
ocean and atmosphere were measured underway
during the cruise by an infrared CO2/H2O
detector Li-Cor model 7000 as described by
Dickson et al. 2007 .
French system on board the Corenav 3, Oct. 2012

Building of a CO2 system in Brazil  ongoing at INPE

Air sea flux
• The net sea-air CO2 fluxes (F, mmol m-2 d-1) is
calculated using : F= k K0 (fCO2sw- fCO2air)
• K0 is the solubility of CO2 as a function of SST
and SSS (Weiss, 1974). The gas transfer velocity
for CO2(k) was calculated according to Sweeney
et al. (2007): k=0.27 wsp2(Sc/660)-0.5 .
• Sc is the Schmidt number and 660 is the
Schmidt number of CO2 in seawater at 20°C
(Wanninkhof, 1992) and wsp is the Wind speed
at 10m.
• DIC

• TA
DIC
TA