Ocean Deoxygenation Conference | Kiel 2018

Oceanic oxygen content is influenced by many physical and biogeochemical factors, representing the integrated effects of local and remote drivers across a wide range of timescales. In this study, we use a global ocean adjoint model to quantify the sensitivity of the oxygen content in the tropical Pacific oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) to local and remote (i.) surface forcing (e.g. wind stress, heat flux) and (ii.) biogeochemical anomalies on annual-to-decadal timescales. Adjoint sensitivity fields can potentially inform the development of future observational networks by highlighting locations that remotely influence oxygen values in the OMZ. In addition, sensitivity fields may help with the diagnosis of Earth System Model output by identifying key local and remote drivers of OMZ variability.