An Absurdly Simple Model for Oceanic Export Efficiency's Temperature Dependence

Oceanic carbon export is understood to be of crucial importance to the climate system, as well as a complicated process that resists simple description. In particular, empirically derived relationships between temperature and the efficiency of carbon export have been actively studied since the turn of the millennium, offering attractive parameterizations of this phenomenon. Here, by using arguably the simplest model possible along with established thermodynamic dependencies for production and respiration, we take a mechanistic approach to the temperature-export efficiency relationship. The model produces a single-parameter curve that constrains the range of possible efficiency ratios, matching well with multiple data sets of export efficiency; we also compare the curve with simulation results from a global biogeochemical model. While the limitations of this approach nod to the complexity of the system in question, it provides a useful mechanistic constraint on the patterns of carbon export.