Collaborative Research: Air-Sea CO2 Fluxes and Surface Physical Processes in the Labrador Sea

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A study of the air-sea flux of carbon dioxide and the surface physical processes controlling it will be conducted during the Labrador Sea spring bloom. The Labrador Sea is highly significant as one of the areas of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) formation. During the late spring months, the Labrador Sea experiences a strong plankton bloom, and is an intense sink for carbon dioxide. Deep convection during the subsequent winter mixes the carbon dioxide rich waters throughout the water column. The newly formed NADW is transported southward towards the Antarctic, via a system of deep currents. Given the circulation time scale of order 1000 years, atmospheric gases within the NADW are essentially sequestered. While mid-latitude areas of the global ocean are equally strong sinks of carbon dioxide, gases absorbed into the ocean at these latitudes remain in the near surface waters, and are returned to the atmosphere on the decadal time scale. Hence the gas exchange characteristics in the Labrador Sea are of particular interest because it is one of the few areas of the global ocean that is a long term carbon dioxide sink. The ability to predict and forecast air-sea carbon dioxide fluxes over large areas is also necessary to quantify the adjacent terrestrial carbon budget.The broader impacts of this work relate to improvement of our ability to predict atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and to assess how it might change climate under various scenarios. The large uncertainty surrounding the flux of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and ocean prevent us from determining the partitioning of the sink of anthropogenic carbon dioxide between the ocean and the terrestrial biosphere. This uncertainty also limits our ability to accurately model future atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. The process study we have proposed will improve the accuracy of the global ocean carbon dioxide flux estimates and increase our understanding of the causes of its variability. The project will involve students as undergraduate and post-graduate research assistants. The University of Miami is a Hispanic Serving Institution and thereby fosters the participation of under-represented groups in science and engineering. The data will be made available through several data bases via the World Wide Web. The project will contribute to the active outreach activities coordinated through the Dean's Office at the University of Miami.