The ephemeral and elusive ocean carbon response to COVID-related emissions reductions | CU Experts

; The decline in global emissions of carbon dioxide due to the COVID-19; pandemic provides a unique opportunity to investigate the sensitivity of; the global carbon cycle and climate system to emissions reductions.; Recent efforts to study the response to these emissions declines has not; addressed their impact on the ocean, yet ocean carbon absorption is; particularly susceptible to changing atmospheric carbon concentrations.; Here, we use ensembles of simulations conducted with an Earth system; model to explore the potential detection of COVID-related emissions; reductions in the partial pressure difference in carbon dioxide between; the surface ocean and overlying atmosphere (ΔpCO; 2; ), a; quantity that is regularly measured. We find a unique fingerprint in; global-scale ΔpCO; 2; that is attributable to COVID and; potentially detectable in observations, but only with much larger; emissions reductions than those that have been observed to date.;

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