Description: Observations and model runs indicate trends in dissolved oxygen (DO) associated with current and ongoing global warming. However, a large-scale observation-to-model comparison has been missing and is presented here. This study presents a first global compilation of DO measurements covering the last 50 yr. It shows declining upper-ocean DO levels in many regions, especially the tropical oceans, whereas areas with increasing trends are found in the subtropics and in some subpolar regions. For the Atlantic Ocean south of 20° N, the DO history could even be extended back to about 70 yr, showing decreasing DO in the subtropical South Atlantic. The global mean DO trend between 50° S and 50° N at 300 dbar for the period 1960 to 2010 is –0.066 μmol kg−1 yr−1. Results of a numerical biogeochemical Earth system model reveal that the magnitude of the observed change is consistent with CO2-induced climate change. However, the pattern correlation between simulated and observed patterns of past DO change is negative, indicating that the model does not correctly reproduce the processes responsible for observed regional oxygen changes in the past 50 yr. A negative pattern correlation is also obtained for model configurations with particularly low and particularly high diapycnal mixing, for a configuration that assumes a CO2-induced enhancement of the C : N ratios of exported organic matter and irrespective of whether climatological or realistic winds from reanalysis products are used to force the model. Depending on the model configuration the 300 dbar DO trend between 50° S and 50° N is −0.027 to –0.047 μmol kg−1 yr−1 for climatological wind forcing, with a much larger range of –0.083 to +0.027 μmol kg−1 yr−1 for different initializations of sensitivity runs with reanalysis wind forcing. Although numerical models reproduce the overall sign and, to some extent, magnitude of observed ocean deoxygenation, this degree of realism does not necessarily apply to simulated regional patterns and the representation of processes involved in their generation. Further analysis of the processes that can explain the discrepancies between observed and modeled DO trends is required to better understand the climate sensitivity of oceanic oxygen fields and predict potential DO changes in the future.

Description: A monthly, isopycnal/mixed-layer ocean climatology (MIMOC), global from 0 to 1950 dbar, is compared with other monthly ocean climatologies. All available quality-controlled profiles of temperature (T) and salinity (S) versus pressure (P) collected by conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) instruments from the Argo Program, Ice-Tethered Profilers, and archived in the World Ocean Database are used. MIMOC provides maps of mixed layer properties (conservative temperature, Θ, absolute salinity, SA, and maximum P) as well as maps of interior ocean properties (Θ, SA, and P) to 1950 dbar on isopycnal surfaces. A third product merges the two onto a pressure grid spanning the upper 1950 dbar, adding more familiar potential temperature (θ) and practical salinity (S) maps. All maps are at monthly 0.5° × 0.5° resolution, spanning from 80°S to 90°N. Objective mapping routines used and described here incorporate an isobath-following component using a “Fast Marching” algorithm, as well as front-sharpening components in both the mixed layer and on interior isopycnals. Recent data are emphasized in the mapping. The goal is to compute a climatology that looks as much as possible like synoptic surveys sampled circa 2007–2011 during all phases of the seasonal cycle, minimizing transient eddy and wave signatures. MIMOC preserves a surface mixed layer, minimizes both diapycnal and isopycnal smoothing of θ-S, as well as preserves density structure in the vertical (pycnoclines and pycnostads) and the horizontal (fronts and their associated currents). It is statically stable and resolves water mass features, fronts, and currents with a high level of detail and fidelity.