The carbon budget of the North Sea

H. Thomas (1) , Yves Bozec (1) , H. J. W. de Baar (1) , K. Elkalay (1) , M. Frankignoulle (2) , L.-S. Schiettecatte (2) , A. Vieira Borges (2)

1 Department of Marine Chemistry and Geology
2 Unité d'Océanographie Chimique

A carbon budget has been established for the North Sea, a shelf sea of the NW European continental shelf. The air-sea exchange of CO₂ has been assessed as closing term of the budget. The carbon exchange fluxes with the North Atlantic Ocean dominate the gross carbon budget. The net carbon budget ? more relevant to the issue of the contribution of the coastal ocean to the marine carbon cycle ? is dominated by the carbon inputs from rivers, the Baltic Sea and the atmosphere. The dominant carbon sink is the final export to the North Atlantic Ocean. The North Sea acts as a sink for organic carbon. More than 90% of the CO₂ taken up from the atmosphere is exported to the North Atlantic Ocean making the North Sea a highly efficient continental shelf pump for carbon.

Domaines: Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO]; Astrophysique [astro-ph]; Interfaces continentales, environnement; Océan, Atmosphère; Sciences de la Terre

H. Thomas, Yves Bozec, H. J. W. de Baar, K. Elkalay, M. Frankignoulle, et al.. The carbon budget of the North Sea. Biogeosciences Discussions, 2004, 1 (1), pp.367-392. ⟨hal-00297752⟩