ORCID Profile
0000-0002-5424-9923
Current Organisation
National Institute for Environmental Studies
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Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 22-02-2022
Abstract: Abstract. Coral reefs have been found to produce the sulfur compound dimethyl sulfide (DMS), a climatically relevant aerosol precursor predominantly associated with phytoplankton. Until recently, the role of coral-reef-derived DMS within the climate system had not been quantified. A study preceding the present work found that DMS produced by corals had negligible long-term climatic forcing at the global–regional scale. However, at sub-daily timescales more typically associated with aerosol and cloud formation, the influence of coral-reef-derived DMS on local aerosol radiative effects remains unquantified. The Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) has been used in this work to study the role of coral-reef-derived DMS at sub-daily timescales for the first time. WRF-Chem was run to coincide with an October 2016 field c aign over the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia, against which the model was evaluated. After updating and scaling the DMS surface water climatology, the model reproduced DMS and sulfur concentrations well. The inclusion of coral-reef-derived DMS resulted in no significant change in sulfate aerosol mass or total aerosol number. Subsequently, no direct or indirect aerosol effects were detected. The results suggest that the co-location of the Great Barrier Reef with significant anthropogenic aerosol sources along the Queensland coast prevents coral-reef-derived aerosol from having a modulating influence on local aerosol burdens in the current climate.
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 03-2021
DOI: 10.1029/2020JC016783
Abstract: Biogenic emissions of dimethylsulfide (DMS) are an important source of sulfur to the atmosphere, with implications for aerosol formation and cloud albedo over the ocean. Natural aerosol sources constitute the largest uncertainty in estimates of aerosol radiative forcing and climate and thus, an improved understanding of DMS sources is needed. Coral reefs are strong point sources of DMS however, this coral source of biogenic sulfur is not explicitly included in climatologies or in model simulations. Consequently, the role of coral reefs in local and regional climate remains uncertain. We aim to improve the representation of tropical coral reefs in DMS databases by calculating a climatology of seawater DMS concentration (DMS w ) and sea‐air flux in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Australia. DMS w is calculated from remotely sensed observations of sea surface temperature and photosynthetically active radiation using a multiple linear regression model derived from field observations of DMS w in the GBR. We estimate that coral reefs and lagoon waters in the GBR (∼347,000 km 2 ) release 0.03–0.05 Tg yr −1 of DMS (0.02 Tg yr −1 of sulfur). Based on this estimate, global tropical coral reefs (∼600,000 km 2 ) could emit 0.08 Tg yr −1 of DMS (0.04 Tg yr −1 of sulfur), with the potential to influence the local radiative balance.
Publisher: Stockholm University Press
Date: 2009
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 29-07-2021
DOI: 10.5194/ACP-2021-507
Abstract: Abstract. Coral reefs have been found to produce the sulfur compound dimethyl sulfide (DMS), a climatically relevant aerosol precursor predominantly associated with phytoplankton. Until recently, the role of coral reef-derived DMS within the climate system had not been quantified. A study preceding the present work found that DMS produced by corals had negligible long-term climatic forcing at the global-regional scale. However, at sub-daily time scales more typically associated with aerosol and cloud formation, the influence of coral reef-derived DMS on local aerosol radiative effects remains unquantified. The Weather Research and Forecasting – chemistry model (WRF-Chem) has been used in this work to study the role of coral reef-derived DMS at sub-daily time scales for the first time. WRF-Chem was run to coincide with an October 2016 field c aign over the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia, against which the model was evaluated. After updating the DMS surface water climatology, the model reproduced DMS and sulfur concentrations well. The inclusion of coral reef-derived DMS resulted in no significant change in sulfate aerosol mass or total aerosol number. Subsequently, no direct or indirect aerosol effects were detected. The results suggest that the co-location of the Great Barrier Reef with significant anthropogenic aerosol sources along the Queensland coast prevents coral reef derived-aerosol from having a modulating influence on local aerosol burdens in the current climate.
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 21-12-2018
DOI: 10.1029/2018JD029210
No related grants have been discovered for Hiroshi Tanimoto.