Project: CAREER: Imaging the global patterns and drivers of the ocean's biological carbon pump

NSF Award Abstract:
Microscopic plants and animals in the surface ocean remove the atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater by using it to make biological materials. After organisms die, some portion of this carbon sinks into the deep sea where it dissolves back into the water or lands on the seafloor. The Biological Carbon Pump is the name for this carbon transfer out of the sunlit surface ocean, and it is a very important process controlling the earth's carbon cycle and climate. Surprisingly, the size and rate of this transfer remains unclear because data for carbon in particles are not available for many times and places in the ocean. The researcher for this project plans to collect a remarkable new data set and examine it to answer major questions about the Biological Carbon Pump. The data will come from joining existing cruises on research ships sailing through all of the world's oceans, creating a systematic global survey of particles in the ocean. These data will be the heart of a new public database for use by other international researchers in their continued study of the Biological Carbon Pump. For this young researcher, the project will also lay the foundation for a career of integrated research, education, and outreach in oceanography. An Alaskan native will go to sea and analyze data, using these results to complete a Ph.D. degree. In addition, the project will design and produce a new aquarium exhibit at the Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC) to educate the public about the complex workings and global importance of the Biological Carbon Pump. These activities should increase diversity in oceanography and inspire a new generation of scientists.

Reliable and useful data on the Biological Carbon Pump is sparse, mostly due to the experimental, logistical, and technical challenges of studying a complex system over the great expanse of the global ocean. This project aims to tackle a fundamental and ongoing problem in studying the Biological Carbon Pump by providing a global and consistent dataset on particles and plankton in the ocean. In collaboration with the US Repeat Hydrography program, this project will use in situ imaging technology to determine the total abundance, size distribution, and functional groups of particles and mesozooplankton along seven global ocean transects. The design will test fundamental hypotheses related to the presence and nature of regional particle hotspots and examine the global patterns of zooplankton activity and vertical migration as they affect the biological pump. Links between satellite data, calculated flux patterns, attenuation of particles through the mesopelagic, and constraints on biogeochemical models will also be investigated.