Seasonal dynamics and annual budget of dissolved inorganic carbon in the northwestern Mediterranean deep convection region

Deep convection plays a key role in the circulation, thermodynamics and biogeochemical cycles in the Mediterranean Sea, considered as a hotspot of biodiversity and climate change. In the framework of the DEWEX (Dense Water Experiment) project, the seasonal cycle and annual budget of dissolved inorganic carbon in the deep convection area of the northwestern Mediterranean Sea are investigated over the period September 2012–September 2013, using a 3-dimensional coupled physical-biogeochemical-chemical modeling approach. We estimate that the northwestern Mediterranean Sea deep convection region was a moderate sink of CO2 for the atmosphere over the study period. The model results show the reduction of CO2 uptake during deep convection, and its increase during the abrupt spring phytoplankton bloom following the deep convection events. We highlight the dominant role of both biological and physical flows in the annual dissolved inorganic carbon budget. The upper layer of the northwestern deep convection region gained dissolved inorganic carbon through vertical physical supplies and, to a lesser extent, air-sea flux, and lost dissolved inorganic carbon through lateral transport and biological fluxes. The region, covering 2.5 % of the Mediterranean, acted as a source of dissolved inorganic carbon for the surface and intermediate water masses of the western and southern Western Mediterranean Sea and could contribute up to 10 and 20 % to the CO2 exchanges with the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.