Estimating carbonate concentrations south of the Polar Front

Abstract:

A major gap in our ability to understand the present state of ocean acidification in the Southern Ocean has been the limited number of observations of carbonate species in these regions. We use multiple linear regressions (MLR) to estimate alkalinity and DIC from the common hydrographic parameters; temperature, salinity, depth/pressure and oxygen both for the Southern Ocean and more specifically for the Ross Sea. We find distinct regimes based on water masses, where the alkalinity and DIC have different relationships with the hydrographic parameters. The aim of this work is to use all the hydrographic data for the region to produce detailed maps of the carbonate parameters: pCO2, pH, [CO32-], aragonite saturation, calcite saturation, that take into account local currents, especially around complex topography.