Magnitude, variability and controls of particulate export in the upper ocean.

NSF OCE-0097232 04/01-03/03

If common mechanisms can be found for the variations of production and export, these could then be incorporated into more reliable models of the global carbon cycle. While much of the ocean is characterized by low relative POC export, sites of high export are most often characterized by food webs dominated by large phytoplankton, in particular diatoms. If this result holds, models that attempt to predict new and export production from surface chlorophyll or production alone will not resolve the local carbon balance or allow one to model export controls. A mechanistic understanding of the underlying export processes is crucial to being able to incorporate this understanding into models, particularly if we desire to predict fluxes in future climate states.

We are closing in on the rate of exchange of CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, a crucial flux for JGOFS. The partial pressure of CO2 at the surface is determined by thermodynamic effects on partial pressure and the balance of carbon fluxes into and away from the surface ocean. Determining the removal terms for carbon is one of the most challenging tasks; however, without measuring them correctly, our global models and global synthesis will always be tenuous. This is why understanding export is one of the highest priorities for SMP. We have to know what leaves the surface to balance against what is mixed into the surface or added by nitrogen fixation or atmospheric deposition. We also have to understand how this changes with time, ecosystem structure and physical regime. This proposal results in a global synthesis of the thorium derived export data. This will lead to a better understanding of carbon fluxes and parameterization of export that can be inserted into other models.

Buesseler, K.O., R.T. Barber, M-L. Dickson, M.R. Hiscock, J.K. Moore, and R. Sambrotto. 2003. The effect of marginal ice-edge dynamics on production and export in the Southern Ocean along 170ºW. Deep-Sea Research II, 50(3-4), 579-603. [PDF]

Sweeney, E. N., D.J. McGillicuddy, and K.O. Buesseler. 2003. Biogeochemical Impacts due to Mesoscale Eddy Activity in the Sargasso Sea as Measured at the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series (BATS) Site. Deep-Sea Research I. 50, 3017-3039. doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2003.07.008