Air‐Sea Gas Exchange in the Coastal Baltic Sea: Implications for Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal
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Air‐sea gas exchange affects the biogeochemical cycling of trace gases such as CO 2 and dimethyl sulfide (DMS) on a global scale, thereby influencing Earth's climate. In nearshore regions, differences in wind fetch and surfactants are expected to have an impact on gas transfer velocity ( k ). Accurate determination of air‐sea gas exchange in nearshore regions is crucial for assessing the efficacy of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) techniques, as many CDR methods are expected to be deployed in these regions. In this study, we used the 3 He/SF 6 dual tracer technique to determine k and investigate factors that control air‐sea gas exchange in a nearshore inland sea ecosystem, the coastal Baltic Sea. We found that k was, on average, about 39% lower than in other coastal and offshore regions at the same wind speed, with a more pronounced reduction at higher wind speeds and during developing wave conditions. Most of the wind speed/gas exchange parameterizations proposed for the Baltic Sea were found to overestimate k . The lower k was likely due to wind fetch limitation, wind‐wave interactions, and the presence of surfactants.
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In practice, k is typically parameterized by wind speed, although recent research suggests this approach may significantly underestimate air-sea exchange rate in some coastal waters.
“In practice, k is typically parameterized by wind speed, although recent research suggests this approach may significantly underestimate air-sea exchange rate in some coastal waters. 58”
From A framework for understanding efficiency losses of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
Section 1.2 confirms that k is often parameterized by wind speed. But Section 3.1 reports that most wind-speed parameterizations overestimated k in the coastal Baltic Sea, contrary to the claimed underestimation. (LLM, conf=0.89)
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A framework for understanding efficiency losses of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement
Lunstrum, A., Keller, D., Hartmann, J., & Moras, C. (2026) · CDRxiv · doi:10.70212/cdrxiv.2026517.v1 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Dobashi, R., Ho, D. T., Marandino, C. A., & Schlosser, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (US)
- GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (DE)
- Arizona State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dobashi, Ryo
- Venue
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2026-02
- Volume
- 131
- Issue
- 2
- ISSN
- 2169-9275 (ISSN-L)
- 2169-9291
- OpenAlex
- W7128589070
- Cited by
- 1
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1
- FWCI
- 3.53
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Geophysical Research Oceans (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (OCE‐1756807)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Ocean Waves and Remote Sensing
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine and coastal ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
- Keywords
- air-sea gas exchange, gas transfer velocity, carbon dioxide removal, Baltic Sea, fetch, wind-wave interaction, surfactants, dimethyl sulfide
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