Satellite Study of the E. huxleyi Phenomenon in the Barents, Norwegian, and Greenland Seas in 2003–2021: Temporal Dynamics of the Bloom Areal Extent, Inorganic Carbon Production and CО2 Partial Pressure in Surface Water

Abstract

Based on satellite data, E. huxleyi bloom contouring, quantification of particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) production and increment of CO2 partial pressure, (pCO2) in surface water were performed. 18-year (2003–2021) time series of these variables are obtained for the Norwegian, Greenland and Barents seas. The bloom areas in the North Atlantic–Arctic water are the lowest in the Greenland Sea varying from 10×103 km2 to (20–40)×103 km2. In the Norwegian and Barents Seas they reach in some years (60–80)×103 km2 and (500–600)×103 km2, respectively. The total PIC content within E. huxleyi blooms rarely exceeds in the Greenland and Norwegian seas 12–14 kilotons and 40 kilotons, respectively. In the Barents Sea, in some years, it can be up to 550 kilotons. The highest level of pCO2 within E. huxleyi blooms in surface waters in the Barents Sea was ~350 µatm. In the Norwegian Sea, pCO2 in surface waters within the E. huxleyi bloom was also close to 350 µatm, but most often it remained about 250 µatm. In the Greenland Sea there were only four years of relatively enhanced pCO2 (up to 250 µatm), otherwise remaining below the level of confident determination by our method. As E. huxleyi blooms are generally very extensive, occur throughout the entire World Oceans (and hence in sum occur all year around), this phenomenon has a potential to both decrease to some degree the role of the World Oceans as sinkers of atmospheric CO2, and affect the carbonate counter pump.