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| Titel |
The Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research Project: Support of Ocean Carbon Research |
| VerfasserIn |
Sophie Beauvais, Nicolas Metzl, Nicolas Gruber, Jean-Pierre Gattuso |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2011
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 13 (2011) |
| Datensatznummer |
250049188
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) Project,
co-sponsored by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) and the International
Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), coordinates research that focuses on
understanding and predicting changes in oceanic food webs and biogeochemical cycles that
arise from global change. An integral part of this overall goal is to understand the marine
carbon cycle, with emphasis on changes that may occur as a result of a changing climate,
increased atmospheric CO2 levels and/or reduced oceanic pH.
The recognition of the importance of the atmosphere-ocean linkage in modifying the ocean
carbon cycle triggered the launch of a joint working group between IMBER and the IGBP
Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) Project. Three major topics have
been identified: 1) ocean-atmosphere CO2 flux, (2) carbon and biogeochemical
cycles in the ocean’s interior and (3) ocean acidification. This poster highlights
some results from the IMBER/SOLAS Carbon Working Group and indicates future
challenges.
The activities of the IMBER/SOLAS Carbon Working Group on ‘surface ocean’ (WG1) have
resulted in the organization and development of a standard global surface CO2 dataset
(Surface Ocean Carbon ATlas, SOCAT, www.socat.info) that brings together, in a
common format, all publicly available data for the surface oceans. The SOCAT
compilation includes data from over 14 countries, producing an initial database
composed of more than 2300 cruises from 1968 - 2007 with more than 7.5 million
measurements of pCO2. The SOCAT product will help the international carbon community
on various topics: it will improve regional and global air-sea CO2 flux estimates;
it will permit to evaluate pCO2 changes and trends; it will offer new constraints
for atmospheric and oceanic inverse methods and it will provide crucial data to
evaluate ocean and climate models. SOCAT is strongly supported by IOCCP and
CARBOOCEAN.
The IMBER/SOLAS Carbon Working Group on ‘ocean interior’ (WG2) has coordinated a
review of vulnerabilities of the decadal variations of the interior ocean carbon and
oxygen cycle. It has developed a plan to add dissolved oxygen sensors to the Argo
float program in order to address the expected loss of oxygen as a result of ocean
warming. WG2 currently focuses on the global synthesis of ocean interior carbon
observations in order to determine the oceanic uptake of anthropogenic CO2 since the mid
1990s.
The main goals of the IMBER/SOLAS Carbon Working Group on ‘Ocean Acidification’
(WG3) are to coordinate international research efforts in ocean acidification and undertake
synthesis activities in ocean acidification at the international level. Several on-going synthesis
activities, such as book projects and work by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) are endorsed by this group. The WG3 is currently developing a package of activities
which are critical to assess the effects of ocean acidification but are, for the most
part, not funded at the national or regional levels and must be carried out at the
international level. Among them is the promotion of international experiments,
the sharing of experimental platforms, and the undertaking of inter-comparison
exercises.
More globally, IMBER and SOLAS, in collaboration with IOCCP foster sustained, globally
coordinated surface-ocean-carbon-observing system through ship-based hydrography,
time-series moorings, floats and gliders. They also encourage synthesis and comparisons at
basin scale. This is critical for several key issues: constraining the global carbon budget,
understanding the variability and changes in the ocean processes that drive CO2 sources and
sinks, and assessing the impact of ocean acidification on biogeochemical cycles and
ecosystems. |
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