1. Diurnal, seasonal, and interannual variations in δ(18O) of atmospheric O2 and its application to evaluate natural and anthropogenic changes in oxygen, carbon, and water cycles
- Author
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S. Ishidoya, S. Sugawara, and A. Okazaki
- Subjects
Physics ,QC1-999 ,Chemistry ,QD1-999 - Abstract
Variations in the δ(18O) of atmospheric O2, δatm(18O), are an indicator of biological and water processes associated with the Dole–Morita effect (DME). The DME and its variations have been observed in ice cores for paleoclimate studies; however, variations in present-day δatm(18O) have never been detected so far. Here, we present diurnal, seasonal, and interannual variations of δatm(18O) based on observations at a surface site in central Japan. The average diurnal δatm(18O) cycle reached a minimum during the daytime, and its amplitude was larger in summer than in winter. We found that use of δatm(18O) enabled separation of variations of atmospheric δ(O2/N2) into contributions from biological activities and fossil fuel combustion. The average seasonal δatm(18O) cycle reached at a minimum in summer, and the peak-to-peak amplitude was about 2 per meg (1 per meg is 0.001 ‰). A box model that incorporated biological and water processes reproduced the general characteristics of the observed diurnal and seasonal cycles. A slight but significant secular increase in δatm(18O) by (0.22 ± 0.14) per meg a−1 occurred during 2013–2022. Secular changes in δatm(18O) were also simulated by using the box model considering long-term changes in terrestrial gross primary production (GPP), photorespiration, and δ(18O) of leaf water (δLW(18O)). We calculated changes in δLW(18O) using a state-of-the-art, three-dimensional model, MIROC5-iso. The observed secular increase in δatm(18O) was reproduced by the box model that incorporated the isotopic effects associated with the DME from Bender et al. (1994), while the simulated δatm(18O) showed a secular decrease when the model incorporated the isotopic effects from Luz and Barkan (2011). Therefore, long-term observations of δatm(18O) and better understanding of the DME are indispensable for an application of δatm(18O) to constrain long-term changes in global GPP and photorespiration.
- Published
- 2025
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