Core Carbonate Chemistry Equipment

海洋覆盖了地球表面的三分之二，含有地球上约97%的水。海洋是溶解无机碳的巨大储存库，无机碳是海洋生命的核心，并与大气交换温室气体二氧化碳。自工业革命以来，海洋占据了人类活动产生的二氧化碳排放量的四分之一到一半。这有力地减少了气候变化，但也改变了海洋的碳酸盐化学，这一过程被称为海洋酸化，它影响着海洋中的生命。海洋碳研究是工程技术的前沿，在气候紧急情况下迫切需要高质量、高效、易用的传感器和仪器。它需要专业技术，以便在具有挑战性的偏远盐碱条件下进行准确的化学分析，从动态的海面到高压、黑暗、寒冷的深海。多年来，海洋学家一直通过分析考察船上采集的海洋内部样本来研究海洋对二氧化碳的吸收。越来越多的带有新的pH传感器的自主机器人平台被用于在偏远海洋地区收集数据，包括在冬季。然而，海水中的酸碱度测量是具有挑战性的，而且酸碱度传感器需要对照准确的仪器进行检查。这项对核心碳酸盐化学设备的投资将加强和提升东安格利亚大学在气候紧急情况下对海洋二氧化碳吸收和海洋酸化进行世界级研究的能力，同时实现高效的pH传感器校准。这些文书将是评估海洋可再生能源、海洋生物能源、蓝色碳储存和有意的海底下碳储存对碳储存的影响的核心。随着世界各地的社会减少温室气体排放，同时走向净零排放，这些设备将对确定海洋二氧化碳吸收的演变至关重要。这项研究将在气候谈判期间告知公众和政策制定者。

The oceans cover two thirds of the Earth's surface and contain about 97% of the water on the planet. The oceans are a vast reservoir for dissolved inorganic carbon, which is central to life in the oceans and exchanges the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide with the atmosphere. Since the industrial revolution the oceans have taken up a quarter to half of the carbon dioxide emissions from human activity. This has strongly reduced climate change but has also changed the carbonate chemistry of the oceans, a process known as ocean acidification, which impacts on life in the oceans. Ocean carbon research is a frontier for engineering and technology in urgent need of high-quality, efficient, easy to use sensors and instrumentation during the climate emergency. It requires specialist techniques for accurate chemical analyses in challenging, remote, saline conditions from the dynamic sea surface to the high pressure, dark, cold deep ocean. For many years oceanographers have studied ocean uptake of carbon dioxide by analysis of samples from the ocean interior collected on research ships. Increasingly, autonomous robotic platforms with new pH sensors are used for data collection in remote ocean regions, including in winter. However, pH measurements in seawater are challenging and pH sensors need checking against accurate instrumentation. This investment in core carbonate chemistry equipment will enhance and upgrade the University of East Anglia's capability for world-class research on ocean uptake of carbon dioxide and ocean acidification during the climate emergency, while enabling efficient pH sensor calibration. The instruments will be central to evaluation of the impacts on carbon storage of marine renewable energy, marine bioenergy, blue carbon storage and deliberate sub-seabed carbon storage. The equipment will be critical for determining the evolution of ocean uptake of carbon dioxide as societies worldwide reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, while moving towards net-zero. The research will inform the public and policy makers during climate negotiations.