Mid-scale RI-2 Consortium: Biogeochemical-Argo: A global robotic network to observe changing ocean chemistry and biology

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The ocean covers more than 70% of the surface of our planet. It provides services that are critical for life on Earth, including absorbing 93% of the heat from recent warming and a quarter of human carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions each year. However, rising ocean temperatures and CO2 levels fundamentally alter the marine environment: pH and oxygen levels fall, ocean currents change, and the distribution of nutrients shifts. Each of these changes has impacts on ecosystems and the cycles of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon throughout the ocean and atmosphere. Observing these biogeochemical (BGC) processes over large areas and long time periods has been virtually impossible due to the high costs associated with ship-based measurements. Yet such observations are essential for understanding the natural state of ocean chemistry and biology and for predicting how the ocean system will evolve in the future. The Global Ocean Biogeochemistry (GO-BGC) Array project aims to drive a transformative shift in our ability to observe and predict, at the global scale, the effects of climate change on ocean metabolism, carbon uptake, and living marine resource management. The project team plans to implement an innovative and sustained robotic network of 500 profiling floats carrying chemical and biological sensors, that would take measurements from 2000-meters depth to the surface every 10 days for several years. These floats will be distributed among all of the major ocean basins and will transmit the data to shore via satellite communication systems. Data will be publicly available within 24 hours. In the past, regional arrays of BGC floats have been deployed with great success, but never has there been a global array. This global array has the potential to provide essential observational data in remote areas where there is little to no routine ship traffic and can operate in the harshest sea conditions such as winter in high-latitude environments. Such measurements from the regional SOCCOM (Southern Ocean Carbon Cycle Observations and Modeling) project have resulted in unanticipated discoveries that highlight the need for a global scale array. It is expected that this unprecedented data stream will drive a transformative shift in scientific and public understanding of chemical and biological (biogeochemical) cycling in the ocean at the global scale. The GO-BGC Project is a partnership of researchers from many of the major oceanographic institutions in the U.S. who bring experience in oceanographic data collection and analysis and in public engagement on ocean issues. The Team would engage Kindergarten-12 schools through the “Adopt-a-Float” Program, providing direct contact between students and scientists and involving students through naming and tracking individual floats. The researchers will host seminars and workshops to familiarize the research community with the data streams and how to use them. They will provide training for undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs in sensor calibration and GO-BGC float deployment and maintenance, directly contributing to the development of the "Blue Workforce." The resulting datasets will be used in classrooms, in scientific research, and in making decisions that move ocean science forward. Societal benefits arise from using the data for weather and climate forecasts as well as in marine resource management.One of the eight priority science questions that came out of the National Research Council’s Sea Change: 2015–2025 Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences report asked, “How have ocean biogeochemical and physical processes contributed to today’s climate and its variability, and how will this system change over the next century?” The GO-BGC Project would make a major contribution toward answering that question. One of the primary impediments to addressing this question to date has been the lack of continuous biogeochemical measurements on a global scale and during all seasons. Ship-based biogeochemical measurements are made on various individual campaigns in selected parts of the world’s ocean, but data are sparse in time and space, leaving major gaps in our knowledge of biogeochemical processes on a global and regional scales. The GO-BGC Project is the result of over a decade of planning by the oceanographic community to address these gaps. The Project has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the ocean’s role in the global carbon cycle, acidification and deoxygenation of the global ocean, and ecosystem productivity and health.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.