Oceanic uptake of CO₂ enhanced by mesoscale eddies

Oceanic mesoscale eddies play a crucial but underexplored role in regulating carbon fluxes and climate change. While they redistribute heat, salt, nutrients, and other tracers, their effects on CO₂ uptake remain uncertain. Using observation-based machine learning to estimate CO₂ fluxes throughout the lifetimes of thousands of eddies, we show that anticyclonic eddies substantially enhance CO₂ uptake on average, while cyclonic eddies marginally diminish it. This asymmetry yields an overall net increase in CO₂ absorption by 9.98 ± 2.28 and 13.82 ± 9.94% in the Kuroshio Extension and Gulf Stream, respectively, major carbon sequestration regions. The primary driver of this enhanced uptake is the downward pumping of dissolved inorganic carbon within anticyclonic eddies. Asymmetric biological responses between anticyclonic and cyclonic eddies contribute to the overall eddy-induced CO₂ flux imbalance. The finding suggests a potential underestimation of the ocean's capacity for carbon sequestration because of insufficient incorporation of eddies in current observations, emphasizing the need for expanded monitoring in eddy-rich, undersampled regions.