Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) simulations in the global ocean and subduction regions using Earth system model AWI-ESM to assess OAE efficiency, earth system feedbacks, and scenario sensitivity
Nagwekar, Tanvi et al.
Experiment
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Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement is a marine carbon dioxide removal method that accelerates oceanic CO2 uptake through the addition of alkaline minerals to surface ocean thus helping in reduction of atmospheric CO2 concentration. To assess whether OAE delivers durable carbon removal, we simulated both global OAE and OAE in subduction regions, which carry surface carbon into the deep ocean, to compare their efficiency and to quantify how emission pathway and Earth system feedbacks change the additional CO₂ uptake. Here, we conduct model ensemble simulations using the fully coupled Alfred-Wegener-Institute Earth System Model (AWI-ESM) to evaluate OAE implementation at both the global and subduction regions scale. Our focus on subduction regions stems from their role as a critical pathway that transfers carbon absorbed at the ocean surface to the deep ocean, where it can be sequestered away from the atmosphere on centennial timescale. We perform simulations spanning the 21st century (2030-2100) under two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways: SSP1-2.6 and SSP3-7.0. These simulations are used to assess the OAE efficiency for global versus regional deployment, examine sensitivity to the emission pathways used, and account for the influence of earth system feedbacks on additional carbon uptake due to OAE interventions. The utilized model setup AWI-ESM-1-REcoM couples the atmospheric general circulation model ECHAM (Version 6.3.04p1) and its land surface and vegetation component JSBACH (Version 3.20) with the unstructured-mesh ocean–sea ice model FESOM (Version 1.4) and the ocean biogeochemistry model REcoM (Version 2).
Nagwekar, Tanvi; Danek, Christopher; Seifert, Miriam; Hauck, Judith (2026). Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) simulations in the global ocean and subduction regions using Earth system model AWI-ESM to assess OAE efficiency, earth system feedbacks, and scenario sensitivity. World Data Center for Climate (WDCC) at DKRZ. https://www.wdc-climate.de/ui/entry?acronym=GSOAE
[1] DOINagwekar, Tanvi; Danek, Christopher; Seifert, Miriam; Hauck, Judith. (2026). Alkalinity enhancement in subduction regions and the global ocean: efficiency, earth system feedbacks, and scenario sensitivity. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ae293b