The Arctic Ocean is changing faster than any other ocean region in the world due to Arctic amplification. Uptake of anthropogenic carbon, warming, sea ice reduction, coastal erosion, and enhanced riverine runoff are driving important changes in the Arctic Ocean ecosystem through changes in primary production and ocean acidification. While primary production in the Arctic Ocean might increase due to warming and reduced sea ice, this positive effect on the Arctic Ocean’s ecosystem could be offset by ocean acidification, which is strongest in the Arctic Ocean.
However, the current understanding of primary production and ocean acidification in the Arctic remains highly uncertain and projections of both processes by Earth-System Models diverge strongly in this region.
In my talk I will present (1) a modelling study that quantifies the impact of terrigenous nutrients on Arctic Ocean primary production, a process that was (wrongly?) neglected so far, and (2) an emergent constraint on ocean acidification in the Arctic Ocean that suggests that projections of Earth-System Models collectively underestimated the extent of future ocean acidification in the Arctic Ocean.