Observed decreases in oxygen content of the global ocean
Open accessAbstract
Comparing the high-quality oxygen climatology fromthe World Ocean Circulation Experiment to earlier data wereveal near-global decreases in oxygen levels in the upperocean between the 1970s and the 1990s. This globallyaveraged oxygen decrease is −0.93 0.23 mol l−1, whichis equivalent to annual oxygen losses of −0.55 0.13 1014 mol yr−1 (1001000 m). The strongest decreases inoxygen occur in the mid-latitudes of both hemispheres,near regions where there is strong water renewal andexchange between the ocean interior and surface waters.Approximately 15% of global oxygen decrease can beexplained by a warmer mixed-layer reducing the capacityof water to store oxygen, while the remainder is consistentwith an overall decrease in the exchange between surfacewaters and the ocean interior. Here we suggest that thisreduction in water mass renewal rates on a global scale is aconsequence of increased stratification caused by warmersurface waters. These observations support climate modelsimulations of oxygen change under global warmingscenarios.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Cites
Ocean Deoxygenation in a Warming World
Keeling, R. F., Körtzinger, A., & Gruber, N. (2010) · Annual Review of Marine Science · doi:10.1146/annurev.marine.010908.163855 · Cited by 1,712 · see citing works
Expanding Oxygen-Minimum Zones in the Tropical Oceans
Stramma, L., Johnson, G. C., Janet Sprintall, A., & Mohrholz, V. (2008) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1153847 · Cited by 1,520 · see citing works
Saturation of the Southern Ocean CO 2 Sink Due to Recent Climate Change
Quéré, C. L., Rödenbeck, C., Buitenhuis, E. T., Conway, T. J., Langenfelds, R. L., Gomez, A. J., Labuschagne, C. J., Ramonet, M., Nakazawa, T., Metzl, N., et al. (2007) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1136188 · Cited by 908 · see citing works
Persistently declining oxygen levels in the interior waters of the eastern subarctic Pacific
Whitney, F. A., Freeland, H. J., & Robert, M. (2007) · Progress In Oceanography · doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2007.08.007 · Cited by 359 · see citing works
Linear trends in salinity for the World Ocean, 1955–1998
Boyer, T. P., Levitus, S., Antonov, J. I., Locarnini, R., & Garcia, H. E. (2005) · Geophysical Research Letters · doi:10.1029/2004gl021791 · Cited by 341 · see citing works
Climate‐induced oceanic oxygen fluxes: Implications for the contemporary carbon budget
Bopp, L., Quéré, C. L., Heimann, M., Manning, A. C., & Monfray, P. (2002) · Global Biogeochemical Cycles · doi:10.1029/2001gb001445 · Cited by 339 · see citing works
Matear, R. J., & Hirst, A. C. (2003) · Global Biogeochemical Cycles · doi:10.1029/2002gb001997 · Cited by 303 · see citing works
The change in oceanic O <sub>2</sub> inventory associated with recent global warming
Keeling, R. F., & Garcia, H. E. (2002) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.122154899 · Cited by 292 · see citing works
Manning, A. C., & Keeling, R. F. (2006) · Tellus B · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0889.2006.00175.x · Cited by 274 · see citing works
Changes in the global hydrological‐cycle inferred from ocean salinity
Helm, K. P., Bindoff, N. L., & Church, J. A. (2010) · Geophysical Research Letters · doi:10.1029/2010gl044222 · Cited by 204 · see citing works
Self-citationChanges in dissolved oxygen in the Southern Ocean with climate change
Matear, R. J., Hirst, A. C., & McNeil, B. I. (2000) · Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems · doi:10.1029/2000gc000086 · Cited by 201 · see citing works
Oceanic acidification affects marine carbon pump and triggers extended marine oxygen holes
Hofmann, M., & Schellnhuber, H. J. (2009) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0813384106 · Cited by 197 · see citing works
Frölicher, T. L., Joos, F., Plattner, G., Steinacher, M., & Doney, S. C. (2009) · Global Biogeochemical Cycles · doi:10.1029/2008gb003316 · Cited by 176 · see citing works
Revision of the global carbon budget due to changing air‐sea oxygen fluxes
Plattner, G., Joos, F., & Stocker, T. F. (2002) · Global Biogeochemical Cycles · doi:10.1029/2001gb001746 · Cited by 163 · see citing works
Emerson, S., Watanabe, Y. W., Ono, T., & Mecking, S. (2004) · Journal of Oceanography · doi:10.1023/b:joce.0000038323.62130.a0 · Cited by 153 · see citing works
Trends in marine dissolved oxygen: Implications for ocean circulation changes and the carbon budget
Joos, F., Plattner, G., Stocker, T. F., Körtzinger, A., & Wallace, D. W. R. (2003) · Eos · doi:10.1029/2003eo210001 · Cited by 141 · see citing works
Nakanowatari, T., Ohshima, Κ. I., & Wakatsuchi, M. (2007) · Geophysical Research Letters · doi:10.1029/2006gl028243 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
Evolution of the ENSO Signal over the Indo–Pacific Domain*
Tourre, Y. M., & White, W. B. (1997) · Journal of Physical Oceanography · doi:10.1175/1520-0485(1997)027 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Interdecadal water mass changes in the Southern Ocean between 30°E and 160°E
Aoki, S., Bindoff, N. L., & Church, J. A. (2005) · Geophysical Research Letters · doi:10.1029/2004gl022220 · Cited by 73 · see citing works
Self-citationHow does ocean ventilation change under global warming?
Gnanadesikan, A., Russell, J. L., & Zeng, F. (2007) · Ocean science · doi:10.5194/os-3-43-2007 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Noise-Induced Transitions in a Simplified Model of the Thermohaline Circulation
Timmermann, A., & Lohmann, G. (2000) · Journal of Physical Oceanography · doi:10.1175/1520-0485(2000)030 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Mecking, S., Warner, M. J., & Bullister, J. L. (2005) · Deep Sea Research Part I Oceanographic Research Papers · doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2005.06.018 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Correction to “Fingerprints of climate change in North Pacific oxygen”
Deutsch, C. A., Emerson, S., & Thompson, L. (2005) · Geophysical Research Letters · doi:10.1029/2005gl024471 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Bindoff, 2007, Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 385
- Meehl, 2007, Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 747
- Trenberth, 2007, Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 235
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Declining oxygen in the global ocean and coastal waters
Breitburg, D., Levin, L. A., Oschlies, A., Grégoire, M., Chavez, F. P., Conley, D. J., Garçon, V., Gilbert, D., Gutiérrez, D., Isensee, K., et al. (2018) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aam7240 · Cited by 3,253 · see citing works
Decline in global oceanic oxygen content during the past five decades
Schmidtko, S., Stramma, L., & Visbeck, M. (2017) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature21399 · Cited by 1,398 · see citing works
Kwiatkowski, L., Torres, O., Bopp, L., Aumont, O., Chamberlain, M., Christian, J. R., Dunne, J. P., Gehlen, M., Ilyina, T., John, J. G., et al. (2020) · Biogeosciences · doi:10.5194/bg-17-3439-2020 · Cited by 897 · see citing works
Brandt, P., Bange, H. W., Banyte, D., Dengler, M., Didwischus, S.-H., Fischer, T., Greatbatch, R. J., Hahn, J., Kanzow, T., Karstensen, J., et al. (2015) · Biogeosciences · doi:10.5194/bg-12-489-2015 · Cited by 180 · see citing works
- Authors
- Helm, K. P., Bindoff, N. L., & Church, J. A.
- Venue
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2011-12
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 23
- Pages
- n/a-n/a
- ISSN
- 0094-8276 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1899478169
- Semantic Scholar
- 3846306d4eb4d309e3f9036fd356d1d3ff3f7c5b
- Cited by
- 357
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 58 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 33 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 21 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 11.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- figshare.com
- Locations
- Geophysical Research Letters (publishedVersion)
- UTAS Research Repository (acceptedVersion)
- eCite Digital Repository (University of Tasmania) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine and coastal ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Keywords
- ocean deoxygenation, dissolved oxygen depletion, WOCE, ocean stratification, global warming
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
