Why productive upwelling areas are often sources rather than sinks of CO₂? – a comparative study on eddy upwellings in the South China Sea

Marine upwelling regions are known to be productive in carbon fixation and thus thought to be sinks of CO2, whereas many upwelling areas in the ocean are actually sources rather than sinks of CO2. To address this paradox, multiple biogeochemical parameters were investigated at two cyclonic-eddy-induced upwelling sites CE1 and CE2 in the western South China Sea. The results showed that upwelling can exert significant influences on biological activities in the euphotic zone and can either increase or decrease particulate organic carbon (POC) export flux depending on upwelling conditions such as the magnitude, timing, and duration of nutrient input and consequent microbial activities. At CE2 the increase of phytoplankton biomass caused by the upwelled nutrients resulted in increase of POC export flux compared to non-eddy reference sites, while at CE1 the microbial respiration of organic carbon stimulated by the upwelled nutrients significantly contributed to the attenuation of POC export flux, aggravating outgassing of CO2. These results suggest that on top of upwelled dissolved inorganic carbon release, microbial activities stimulated by upwelled nutrients and phytoplankton labile organic carbon can play a critical role for a marine upwelling area to be a source rather than a sink of CO2. Meanwhile, we point out that even though an upwelling region is outgassing, carbon sequestration still takes place through the POC-based biological pump as well as the refractory dissolved organic carbon (RDOC)-based microbial carbon pump.