Undersaturation of CH3Br in the Southern Ocean

Abstract

Dry mole fractions of methyl bromide (CH3Br) in marine boundary layer air and in air equilibrated with surface water were measured in the Southern Ocean. Saturation anomalies were consistently negative at -36±7%. The observed undersaturations do not support recently published predictions of highly supersaturated Antarctic waters, but instead suggest a net uptake of atmospheric CH3Br by cold, productive oceans. The observations do not appear to be supported by known chemical degradation rates and present strong evidence for an unidentified, oceanic sink mechanism such as biological breakdown. Our estimate for the global, net, oceanic sink for atmospheric methyl bromide remains negative at -21 (-11 to -32) Gg y-1.