Ito, Takamitsu, Minobe, Shoshiro, Long, Matthew C., Deutsch, Curtis

Geophysical Research Letters

Published date April 24, 2017

Upper Ocean O2 trends: 1958‐2015

  • Analyzes historic observations of dissolved oxygen (O2) in the ocean to quantify multi-decadal trends and variability from 1958 to 2015
  • Uses ocean reanalysis data to evaluate relationships with changes in ocean heat content (OHC) and oxygen solubility
  • Finds that global O2 decline is evident after the 1980s, accompanied by an increase in global OHC
  • Finds that the global upper ocean O2 inventory (0-1,000m) changed at the rate of -243±124TmolO2 per decade
  • Results show that O2 inventory is negatively correlated with the OHC
  • Findings indicate that changing ocean circulation, mixing and/or biochemical processes, rather than the direct thermally-induced solubility effects, are the primary drivers for observed O2 changes