Description: Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere – the “global carbon budget” – is important to better understand the global carbon cycle, support the development of climate policies, and project future climate change. Here we describe data sets and methodology to quantify the five major components of the global carbon budget and their uncertainties. Fossil CO2 emissions (EFF) are based on energy statistics and cement production data, while emissions from land use and land-use change (ELUC), mainly deforestation, are based on land use and land-use change data and bookkeeping models. Atmospheric CO2 concentration is measured directly and its growth rate (GATM) is computed from the annual changes in concentration. The ocean CO2 sink (SOCEAN) and terrestrial CO2 sink (SLAND) are estimated with global process models constrained by observations. The resulting carbon budget imbalance (BIM), the difference between the estimated total emissions and the estimated changes in the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere, is a measure of imperfect data and understanding of the contemporary carbon cycle. All uncertainties are reported as ±1σ. For the last decade available (2008–2017), EFF was 9.4±0.5 GtC yr−1, ELUC 1.5±0.7 GtC yr−1, GATM 4.7±0.02 GtC yr−1, SOCEAN 2.4±0.5 GtC yr−1, and SLAND 3.2±0.8 GtC yr−1, with a budget imbalance BIM of 0.5 GtC yr−1 indicating overestimated emissions and/or underestimated sinks. For the year 2017 alone, the growth in EFF was about 1.6 % and emissions increased to 9.9±0.5 GtC yr−1. Also for 2017, ELUC was 1.4±0.7 GtC yr−1, GATM was 4.6±0.2 GtC yr−1, SOCEAN was 2.5±0.5 GtC yr−1, and SLAND was 3.8±0.8 GtC yr−1, with a BIM of 0.3 GtC. The global atmospheric CO2 concentration reached 405.0±0.1 ppm averaged over 2017. For 2018, preliminary data for the first 6–9 months indicate a renewed growth in EFF of +2.7 % (range of 1.8 % to 3.7 %) based on national emission projections for China, the US, the EU, and India and projections of gross domestic product corrected for recent changes in the carbon intensity of the economy for the rest of the world. The analysis presented here shows that the mean and trend in the five components of the global carbon budget are consistently estimated over the period of 1959–2017, but discrepancies of up to 1 GtC yr−1 persist for the representation of semi-decadal variability in CO2 fluxes. A detailed comparison among individual estimates and the introduction of a broad range of observations show (1) no consensus in the mean and trend in land-use change emissions, (2) a persistent low agreement among the different methods on the magnitude of the land CO2 flux in the northern extra-tropics, and (3) an apparent underestimation of the CO2 variability by ocean models, originating outside the tropics. This living data update documents changes in the methods and data sets used in this new global carbon budget and the progress in understanding the global carbon cycle compared with previous publications of this data set (Le Quéré et al., 2018, 2016, 2015a, b, 2014, 2013)

Description: The Southern Ocean is the most important area of anthropogenic carbon (Cant) uptake in the world ocean, only rivalled in importance by the North Atlantic Ocean. Significant variability on decadal time-scales in the uptake of Cant in the Southern Ocean has been observed and modelled, likely with consequences for the interior ocean storage of Cant in the region, and implications for the global carbon budget. Here we use eight cruises between 1973 and 2012 to assess decadal variability in Cant storage rates in the southeast Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. For this we employed the extended multiple linear regression (eMLR) method. We relate variability in DIC (dissolved inorganic carbon) storage, which is assumed to equal anthropogenic carbon storage, to changes in ventilation as observed from repeat measurements of transient tracers. Within the Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) layer, which is the dominant transport conduit for Cant into the interior ocean, moderate Cant storage rates were found without any clear temporal trend. In Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW), a less dense water mass found north of the Subantarctic Front and above AAIW, high storage rates of Cant were observed up to about 2005 but lower rates in more recent times. The transient tracer data suggest a significant speed-up of ventilation in the summer warmed upper part of AAIW between 1998 and 2012, which is consistent with the high storage rate of Cant. A shift of more northern Cant storage to more southern storage in near surface waters was detected in the early 2000s. Beneath the AAIW the eMLR method as applied here did not detect significant storage of Cant. However, the presence of the transient tracer CFC-12 all through the water column suggests that some Cant should be present, but at concentrations not reliably quantifiable. The observed temporal variability in the interior ocean seems at a first glance to be out of phase with observed surface ocean Cant fluxes, but this can be explained by the time delay for the surface ocean signal to manifest itself in the interior of the ocean.

Description: We analyzed 214 new core-top samples for their CaCO3 content from shelves all around Antarctica in order to understand their distribution and contribution to the marine carbon cycle. The distribution of sedimentary CaCO3 on the Antarctic shelves is connected to environmental parameters where we considered water depth, width of the shelf, sea-ice coverage and primary production. While CaCO3 contents of surface sediments are usually low, high (〉 15%) CaCO3 contents occur at shallow water depths (150–200 m) on the narrow shelves of the eastern Weddell Sea and at a depth range of 600–900 m on the broader and deeper shelves of the Amundsen, Bellingshausen and western Weddell Seas. Regions with high primary production, such as the Ross Sea and the western Antarctic Peninsula region, have generally low CaCO3 contents in the surface sediments. The predominant mineral phase of CaCO3 on the Antarctic shelves is low-magnesium calcite. With respect to ocean acidification, our findings suggest that dissolution of carbonates in Antarctic shelf sediments may be an important negative feedback only after the onset of calcite undersaturation on the Antarctic shelves. Macrozoobenthic CaCO3 standing stocks do not increase the CaCO3 budget significantly as they are two orders of magnitude lower than the budget of the sediments. This first circumpolar compilation of Antarctic shelf carbonate data does not claim to be complete. Future studies are encouraged and needed to fill data gaps especially in the under-sampled southwest Pacific and Indian Ocean sectors of the Southern Ocean.

Description: We present a mapped climatology (GLODAPv2.2016b) of ocean biogeochemical variables based on the new GLODAP version 2 data product (Olsen et al., 2016; Key et al., 2015), which covers all ocean basins over the years 1972 to 2013. The quality-controlled and internally consistent GLODAPv2 was used to create global 1°  ×  1° mapped climatologies of salinity, temperature, oxygen, nitrate, phosphate, silicate, total dissolved inorganic carbon (TCO2), total alkalinity (TAlk), pH, and CaCO3 saturation states using the Data-Interpolating Variational Analysis (DIVA) mapping method. Improving on maps based on an earlier but similar dataset, GLODAPv1.1, this climatology also covers the Arctic Ocean. Climatologies were created for 33 standard depth surfaces. The conceivably confounding temporal trends in TCO2 and pH due to anthropogenic influence were removed prior to mapping by normalizing these data to the year 2002 using first-order calculations of anthropogenic carbon accumulation rates. We additionally provide maps of accumulated anthropogenic carbon in the year 2002 and of preindustrial TCO2. For all parameters, all data from the full 1972–2013 period were used, including data that did not receive full secondary quality control. The GLODAPv2.2016b global 1°  ×  1° mapped climatologies, including error fields and ancillary information, are available at the GLODAPv2 web page at the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC; doi:10.3334/CDIAC/OTG.NDP093_GLODAPv2).

Description: Stratospheric ozone depletion and emission of greenhouse gases lead to a trend of the southern annular mode (SAM) toward its high-index polarity. The positive phase of the SAM is characterized by stronger than usual westerly winds that induce changes in the physical carbon transport. Changes in the natural carbon budget of the upper 100 m of the Southern Ocean in response to a positive SAM phase are explored with a coupled ecosystem-general circulation model and regression analysis. Previously overlooked processes that are important for the upper ocean carbon budget during a positive SAM period are identified, namely, export production and downward transport of carbon north of the polar front (PF) as large as the upwelling in the south. The limiting micronutrient iron is brought into the surface layer by upwelling and stimulates phytoplankton growth and export production but only in summer. This leads to a drawdown of carbon and less summertime outgassing (or more uptake) of natural CO2. In winter, biological mechanisms are inactive, and the surface ocean equilibrates with the atmosphere by releasing CO2. In the annual mean, the upper ocean region south of the PF loses more carbon by additional export production than by the release of CO2 into the atmosphere, highlighting the role of the biological carbon pump in response to a positive SAM event.

Description: Version 2 of the Global Ocean Data Analysis Project (GLODAPv2) data product is composed of data from 724 scientific cruises covering the global ocean. It includes data assembled during the previous efforts GLODAPv1.1 (Global Ocean Data Analysis Project version 1.1) in 2004, CARINA (CARbon IN the Atlantic) in 2009/2010, and PACIFICA (PACIFic ocean Interior CArbon) in 2013, as well as data from an additional 168 cruises. Data for 12 core variables (salinity, oxygen, nitrate, silicate, phosphate, dissolved inorganic carbon, total alkalinity, pH, CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-113, and CCl 4) have been subjected to extensive quality control, including systematic evaluation of bias. The data are available in two formats: (i) as submitted but updated to WOCE exchange format and (ii) as a merged and internally consistent data product. In the latter, adjustments have been applied to remove significant biases, respecting occurrences of any known or likely time trends or variations. Adjustments applied by previous efforts were re-evaluated. Hence, GLODAPv2 is not a simple merging of previous products with some new data added but a unique, internally consistent data product. This compiled and adjusted data product is believed to be consistent to better than 0.005 in salinity, 1 % in oxygen, 2 % in nitrate, 2 % in silicate, 2 % in phosphate, 4 µmol kg −1 in dissolved inorganic carbon, 6 µmol kg −1 in total alkalinity, 0.005 in pH, and 5 % for the halogenated transient tracers.

Description: Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere – the “global carbon budget” – is important to better understand the global carbon cycle, support the development of climate policies, and project future climate change. Here we describe data sets and methodology to quantify all major components of the global carbon budget, including their uncertainties, based on the combination of a range of data, algorithms, statistics, and model estimates and their interpretation by a broad scientific community. We discuss changes compared to previous estimates and consistency within and among components, alongside methodology and data limitations. CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and industry (EFF) are based on energy statistics and cement production data, respectively, while emissions from land-use change (ELUC), mainly deforestation, are based on combined evidence from land-cover change data, fire activity associated with deforestation, and models. The global atmospheric CO2 concentration is measured directly and its rate of growth (GATM) is computed from the annual changes in concentration. The mean ocean CO2 sink (SOCEAN) is based on observations from the 1990s, while the annual anomalies and trends are estimated with ocean models. The variability in SOCEAN is evaluated with data products based on surveys of ocean CO2 measurements. The global residual terrestrial CO2 sink (SLAND) is estimated by the difference of the other terms of the global carbon budget and compared to results of independent dynamic global vegetation models. We compare the mean land and ocean fluxes and their variability to estimates from three atmospheric inverse methods for three broad latitude bands. All uncertainties are reported as ±1σ, reflecting the current capacity to characterise the annual estimates of each component of the global carbon budget. For the last decade available (2006–2015), EFF was 9.3 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1, ELUC 1.0 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1, GATM 4.5 ± 0.1 GtC yr−1, SOCEAN 2.6 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1, and SLAND 3.1 ± 0.9 GtC yr−1. For year 2015 alone, the growth in EFF was approximately zero and emissions remained at 9.9 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1, showing a slowdown in growth of these emissions compared to the average growth of 1.8 % yr−1 that took place during 2006–2015. Also, for 2015, ELUC was 1.3 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1, GATM was 6.3 ± 0.2 GtC yr−1, SOCEAN was 3.0 ± 0.5 GtC yr−1, and SLAND was 1.9 ± 0.9 GtC yr−1. GATM was higher in 2015 compared to the past decade (2006–2015), reflecting a smaller SLAND for that year. The global atmospheric CO2 concentration reached 399.4 ± 0.1 ppm averaged over 2015. For 2016, preliminary data indicate the continuation of low growth in EFF with +0.2 % (range of −1.0 to +1.8 %) based on national emissions projections for China and USA, and projections of gross domestic product corrected for recent changes in the carbon intensity of the economy for the rest of the world. In spite of the low growth of EFF in 2016, the growth rate in atmospheric CO2 concentration is expected to be relatively high because of the persistence of the smaller residual terrestrial sink (SLAND) in response to El Niño conditions of 2015–2016. From this projection of EFF and assumed constant ELUC for 2016, cumulative emissions of CO2 will reach 565 ± 55 GtC (2075 ± 205 GtCO2) for 1870–2016, about 75 % from EFF and 25 % from ELUC. This living data update documents changes in the methods and data sets used in this new carbon budget compared with previous publications of this data set (Le Quéré et al., 2015b, a, 2014, 2013). All observations presented here can be downloaded from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (doi:10.3334/CDIAC/GCP_2016).