How productive is the Southern Ocean?
Results from inverse modeling compared with satellite based estimates The utilization of dissolved nutrients and carbon for photosynthesis in the euphotic zone and the subsequent downward transport of particulate and dissolved organic material strongly affect carbon concentrations in surface water and thus the air-sea exchange of CO2. Efforts to quantify the downward carbon flux for the whole ocean or on basin-scales are hampered by the sparseness of direct productivity or flux measurements. Here, a global ocean circulation, biogeochemical model is used to determine rates of export production and vertical carbon fluxes in the Southern Ocean. The model exploits the existing large sets of hydrographic, oxygen, nutrient and carbon data that contain information on the underlying biogeochemical processes. The model is fitted to the data by systematically varying circulation, air-sea fluxes, production, and remineralization rates simultaneously. Use of the adjoint method yields model propert
