Resolving Biological carbon Export in the Labrador Sea (ReBELS)

表层海洋是数十亿微小植物状浮游植物的家园，它们利用阳光和二氧化碳在表层海洋中产生有机物质。当它们死亡时，它们下沉并将这些碳带入深海，在那里储存数百至数千年的时间尺度。这种储存有助于保持我们今天的气候。这种在深海中生物吸收和储存二氧化碳的过程被称为“生物碳泵”，为了了解我们的气候在不久的将来将如何变化，我们需要了解是什么控制着这一过程。直到最近，人们还认为生物碳泵的工作几乎独立于海洋中发生的混合过程，如风暴、冬季或蜿蜒的洋流。然而，最近的研究表明，这些物理过程可能对生物碳泵非常重要，为碳到达深海提供了一条直接途径，并且可以向深度贡献与死亡物质下沉一样多的碳。因此，我们迫切需要了解生物和物理过程如何相互作用，将有机物质输送到深海。两个原因解释了这种明显的疏忽：物理和生物海洋学家通常独立工作，因此跨学科的过程可能会被忽视。此外，这些过程对海洋碳储存产生最大影响的地点和时间是恶劣的工作环境，海浪和强风使船舶工作几乎不可能。ReBELS是一个令人兴奋的计划，将汇集物理和生物海洋学家，在生物碳泵上密切合作。为了克服后勤方面的挑战，ReBELS将利用最新的技术发展，使用最先进的海洋自主机器人，这些机器人将能够在我们无法使用船只的时候对海洋进行采样。我们的研究地点将是西北大西洋的拉布拉多海。在那里，有机碳在深海中的停留时间比世界上任何其他地方都要长得多（>1000年）。此外，拉布拉多海已被确定为气候的一个非常重要的位置，因为它受到温度上升和冰融化的强烈影响，我们将使用自主技术测量一整年的生物碳泵，并通过不同的生物和物理过程量化碳运输和碳储存。为此，我们将测量有机物颗粒在整个水柱中的分布，并确定它们是下沉还是通过海洋混合而被运输。然后，我们将我们的结果扩展到整个西北大西洋使用代理，可以在更大的规模上确定（例如从卫星）。最后，我们将与建模人员合作，在预测未来气候时纳入这些重要过程。

The surface ocean is home to billions of microscopic plant-like phytoplankton which produce organic matter in the surface ocean using sunlight and carbon dioxide. When they die, they sink and take this carbon into the deep ocean, where it is stored on timescales of hundreds to thousands of years. This storage helps to keep our climate the way it is today. This process of biological CO2 uptake and storage in the deep ocean is called the 'biological carbon pump' and, in order to understand how our climate will change in the near future, we need to understand what controls this process. Until fairly recently, the biological carbon pump was thought to work almost independently from the mixing processes that occur in the oceans, such as during storms, winter or by meandering ocean currents. However, recent work suggested that these physical processes may be very important for the biological carbon pump, providing a direct pathway for carbon to reach the deep ocean, and can contribute as much carbon to depth as the sinking of dead matter alone. Therefore, we urgently need to understand how the biological and physical processes interact to transport organic matter into the deep ocean.Two reasons explain this clear oversight: Physical and biological oceanographers often work independently, so that crossdisciplinary processes can get overlooked. In addition, the location where, and times when, these processes have the most dramatic effect on ocean carbon storage are hostile environments to work in, with very high waves and strong winds that make working from ships nearly impossible. ReBELS is an exciting programme that will bring together physical and biological oceanographers to closely work together on the biological carbon pump. To overcome the logistical challenges, ReBELS will take advantage of the recent developments in technology, using state-of-the-art marine autonomous robots that will be able to sample the ocean at times where we cannot do so with ships. Our study site will be the Labrador Sea in the Northwest Atlantic. There, organic carbon stays in the deep ocean much longer than anywhere else in the world (>1000 years). Moreover, the Labrador Sea has been identified as a very important location for the climate, as it is strongly affected by increasing temperatures and melting ice.Using autonomous technology, we will measure the biological carbon pump over the course of an entire year, and quantify carbon transport and carbon storage through the different biological and physical processes. To do so, we will measure the distribution of organic matter particles throughout the water column and determine whether they are sinking or being transported by ocean mixing. We will then extend our results to the entire Northwest Atlantic using proxies that can be determined on larger scales (for example from satellites). Finally, we will work with modellers to include these important processes when predicting climate in the future.