C. Copinmontegut et B. Avril, CONTINUOUS PCO(2) MEASUREMENTS IN SURFACE-WATER OF THE NORTHEASTERN TROPICAL ATLANTIC, Tellus. Series B, Chemical and physical meteorology, 47(1-2), 1995, pp. 86-92
The partial pressure of CO2 in the area of the northeastern tropical A
tlantic influenced by the Mauritanian upwelling is highly variable in
time and space. Partial pressures between 300 and 450 mu atm were obse
rved in autumn 1991 and spring 1992. In the oceanic region off the Mau
ritanian coast, the range of spatial variations in pCO(2) was low (bet
ween 365 and 395 mu atm, in autumn, and between 332 and 353 mu atm in
spring). In this area, the seasonal pCO(2) variations were mainly due
to temperature effects. Even in the upwelling region, where the biomas
s was high, there was not a single relationship valid for the whole ar
ea between chlorophyll fluorescence and pCO(2). On the other hand, pCO
(2) at a constant temperature was, on an average, decreasing with temp
erature. A comparison with older data shows that pCO(2) in the surface
seawater of the open ocean has evolved as the atmospheric pCO(2) the
last twenty years.