Emergent constraints on projections of declining primary production in the tropical oceans
Kwiatkowski, Lester ; Bopp, Laurent ; Aumont, Olivier ; Ciais, Philippe ; Cox, Peter M. ; Laufkötter, Charlotte ; Li, Yue ; Séférian, Roland
Marine primary production is a fundamental component of the Earth system, providing the main source of food and energy to the marine food web, and influencing the concentration of atmospheric CO 2 (refs 1,2). Earth system model (ESM) projections of global marine primary production are highly uncertain with models projecting both increases and declines of up to 20% by 2100. This uncertainty is predominantly driven by the sensitivity of tropical ocean primary production to climate change, with the latest ESMs suggesting twenty-first-century tropical declines of between 1 and 30% (refs 5,6). Here we identify an emergent relationship between the long-term sensitivity of tropical ocean primary production to rising equatorial zone sea surface temperature (SST) and the interannual sensitivity of primary production to El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-driven SST anomalies. Satellite-based observations of the ENSO sensitivity of tropical primary production are then used to constrain projections of the long-term climate impact on primary production. We estimate that tropical primary production will decline by 3 ± 1% per kelvin increase in equatorial zone SST. Under a business-as-usual emissions scenario this results in an 11 ± 6% decline in tropical marine primary production and a 6 ± 3% decline in global marine primary production by 2100.
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