Radiocarbon in the sea. Final report

The project described in this final report began in 1963 with measurements of fallout 14C in the atmosphere, with simultaneous collection of fission products. Studies in the oceans have included the collection and measurement of more than 1000 samples of sea water in vertical profiles between the surface and as deep as 5000 meters from many different ocean areas. Many of these samples include, in addition to 14C measurement, the measurement of total dissolved inorganic carbon. The combination of the two measurements permits the determination of the absolute amount of 14C in sea water (atoms per liter) which turns out to be a much more meaningful quantity than just the 14C/total carbon ratio given by the 14C measurement alone. One result of our studies on bomb 14C has been a simple model which explains quantitatively the observed secular increase in the mixing ratio of atmospheric CO2 due to the increasing utilization of fossil fuels. At the present time about half the annual emission of fossil CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and it apparently is being taken up in certain unsaturated areas of the oceans. Since this results in an increase in total carbon in the mixed layer the gradients in total carbon will be altered and so will the eddy diffusion fluxes of dissolved carbon