Biogeochemical ocean‐atmosphere transfers

Abstract

The exchange of trace gases and aerosols between the atmosphere and the ocean is an important process in the biogeochemical cycling of both biologically important elements and radiatively important compounds. This exchange process thus plays a significant role in both sustaining life in the ocean and determining the global radiative balance. These exchanges are complex involving biological and chemical processes in the sea, chemical and radiative processes in the air, and transport processes in both the atmosphere and the ocean. To give three specific examples: biological production followed by emissions of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) from the ocean leads to production of acidic cloud condensation nuclei with important implications for global marine cloud cover and thus albedo; atmospheric transport followed by deposition of iron‐containing atmospheric aerosols into the ocean leads to fertilization with possible important effects on net carbon dioxide removal through the biological planktonic pump; and, transfer of carbon compounds between atmosphere and ocean is a critical process in determining global atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and marine atmospheric levels of reactive hydrocarbons. Copyright 1993 by the American Geophysical Union.