The source and accumulation of anthropogenic carbon in the U.S. East Coast.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39121231.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.adl3169 and PMC identifier 11313966.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC.
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Abstract
The ocean has absorbed anthropogenic carbon dioxide (C<sub>anthro</sub>) from the atmosphere and played an important role in mitigating global warming. However, how much C<sub>anthro</sub> is accumulated in coastal oceans and where it comes from have rarely been addressed with observational data. Here, we use a high-quality carbonate dataset (1996-2018) in the U.S. East Coast to address these questions. Our work shows that the offshore slope waters have the highest C<sub>anthro</sub> accumulation changes (ΔC<sub>anthro</sub>) consistent with water mass age and properties. From offshore to nearshore, ΔC<sub>anthro</sub> decreases with salinity to near zero in the subsurface, indicating no net increase in the export of C<sub>anthro</sub> from estuaries and wetlands. Excesses over the conservative mixing baseline also reveal an uptake of C<sub>anthro</sub> from the atmosphere within the shelf. Our analysis suggests that the continental shelf exports most of its absorbed C<sub>anthro</sub> from the atmosphere to the open ocean and acts as an essential pathway for global ocean C<sub>anthro</sub> storage and acidification.