Influence of air-sea fluxes on chlorine isotopic composition of ocean water: Implications for constancy in δ~(37)Cl—A statistical inference

摘要

The behaviors of chlorine isotopes in relation to air-sea flux variables have been investigated through multivariate statistical analyses (MSA). The MSA technique provides an approach to reduce the data set and was applied to a set of 7 air-sea flux variables to supplement and describe the variation in chlorine isotopic compositions (δ~(37)Cl) of ocean water. The variation in δ~(37)Cl values of surface ocean water from 51 stations in 4 major world oceans—the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and the Southern Ocean has been observed from —0.76 to +0.74 per thousand (av. 0.039±0.04 per thousand). The observed δ~(37)Cl values show basic homogeneity and indicate that the air-sea fluxes act differently in different oceanic regions and help to maintain the balance between δ~(37)Cl values of the world oceans. The study showed that it is possible to model the behavior of chlorine isotopes to the extent of 38-73% for different geographical regions. The models offered here are purely statistical in nature; however, the relationships uncovered by these models extend our understanding of the constancy in δ~(37)Cl of ocean water in relation to air-sea flux variables.