Project

An integrative approach to unravel the ocean's biological carbon pump

Acronym
CarbOcean
Code
41Q04520
Duration
01 May 2021 → 30 April 2026
Funding
European funding: framework programme
Principal investigator
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Optical physics not elsewhere classified
    • Biological oceanography
    • Chemical oceanography
    • Physical oceanography
    • Remote sensing
    • Marine ecology
Keywords
biogeochemic-argo program ocean biological carbon pump remote sensing phytoplankton autonomous optical sensors robotic ocean profilers biogeochemistry
Other information
 
Project description

The ocean’s biological carbon pump plays a crucial role in storing atmospheric carbon dioxide in the deep ocean, thereby isolating carbon from the atmosphere for decades to centuries. Yet, its capacity to do so is under-constrained and its mechanisms poorly understood. CarbOcean will develop a mechanistic and quantitative understanding of the biological carbon pump using a novel integrative approach that accounts for its two component pumps: (1) the organic carbon pump, which concerns the photosynthetic production of particulate organic carbon and (2) the carbonate pump, which concerns the production of particulate inorganic carbon. These pumps have opposite effects on the ocean-atmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide. CarbOcean will develop a new optical sensor for autonomous measurement of calcium carbonate, empowering a unique robotic approach to quantify the two key components of the biological carbon pump and physicochemical parameters from the well-lit surface ocean through the underlying twilight zone (roughly 100 – 1000 m depth) at high spatiotemporal resolution. The robotic profilers will be deployed in a wide variety of oceanic environments and biogeochemical conditions and the collected data will allow investigation of links between the fluxes of organic and inorganic carbon particles and detection of environmental drivers. New parameterizations of carbon flux processes will be developed and implemented in a biogeochemical model. Lastly, we envision to up-scale carbon fluxes to the global ocean using remote sensing and artificial intelligence approaches.

 
 
 
Disclaimer
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA). Neither the European Union nor the authority can be held responsible for them.