The global carbon cycle in the Canadian Earth system model (CanESM1): Preindustrial control simulation

Abstract

The preindustrial carbon cycle is described for the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis Earth system model (CanESM1). The interhemispheric gradient of surface atmospheric CO 2 concentration (xCO 2) is reversed from the present day, with higher concentrations in the Southern Hemisphere, and southward interhemispheric transport by the ocean, estimated at 0.38 Pg C yr -1. The seasonal cycles of xCO 2 and surface CO 2 exchange are dominated by Northern Hemisphere terrestrial processes; the ocean contribution to CO 2 flux is in phase with the larger terrestrial flux in the tropics and out of phase in the extratropics. Ocean processes dominate the relatively small Southern Hemisphere variability. Interannual variability of land carbon exchange is much larger than ocean exchange; both are comparable to results from previously published models with possibly larger variability in the terrestrial flux. Terrestrial net primary production (NPP) is determined largely by water availability at low latitudes, with temperature becoming more important at high latitudes. Temperature and moisture affect both NPP and heterotrophic respiration such that respiration effects tend to dampen the effect of fluctuations in NPP on CO 2 exchange. Ocean CO 2 flux variability is controlled by a variety of physical and biological processes with greater control by physical processes in the tropics and a larger biological contribution in the extratropics. Ocean CO 2 flux is more strongly correlated with tropical sea surface temperature (SST) than terrestrial, but the variance associated with tropical SST is larger on land, in absolute terms, because of the much greater total variance of the land carbon flux. A novel hypothesis is advanced to explain how biological drawdown can cause recently upwelled water to be a net sink rather than source for atmospheric CO 2. This process occurs over large areas of extratropical ocean and forms a natural sink for atmospheric CO 2 that is potentially sensitive to both ocean acidification and anthropogenic perturbations of the aeolian iron flux.