Keeping tabs on ocean acidification: Using novel technologies to monitor carbonate chemistry from polar to tropical waters

自工业革命开始以来，由于人为吸收二氧化碳，海洋变得越来越酸，这一过程预计将在目前的情况下继续下去。为了确定海洋酸化热点并开始预测其对海洋生态系统的影响，了解碳酸盐化学的时空变化是必不可少的。传统的船舶观测不能提供了解海洋二氧化碳系统全球和局部变化所需的空间或时间覆盖。然而，自主技术具有大规模高分辨率实时观测的潜力（例如参见Argo项目www.argo.net），并且可以加速我们对海洋二氧化碳循环如何变化的理解。NOC的海洋技术和工程团队在开发海洋传感器技术方面处于世界领先地位。用于现场测量pH、总碱度（TA）和溶解无机碳（DIC）的新型传感器已经达到了集成和部署在自主平台上的技术准备，首次实现了海洋二氧化碳系统的直接现场表征。该项目的目的是通过新的科学应用来优化和验证这些新技术，利用前所未有的天气观测分辨率来了解海洋二氧化碳系统的驱动因素。

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution the ocean has become more acidic due to uptake of anthropogenic CO2, a process that is projected to continue under current scenarios. Understanding spatial and temporal variability in carbonate chemistry is essential in order to identify ocean acidification hotspots and begin to predict its effects on marine ecosystems. Traditional ship-based observations cannot offer the spatial or the temporal coverage required to understand global and local variability in the marine CO2 system. Autonomous technology, however, has the potential for large scale high resolution real-time observing (see for example the Argo project www.argo.net) and could accelerate our understanding of how the ocean CO2 cycle is changing. The Ocean Technology and Engineering group at NOC is a world leader in developing ocean sensor technology. Novel sensors for in situ measurements of pH, Total Alkalinity (TA) and Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC) have reached technology readiness for integration and deployment on autonomous platforms enabling, for the first time, direct in situ characterization of the marine CO2 system. The purpose of this project is to optimize and validate these new technologies through new science applications, using the unprecedented resolution of synoptic observations to understand drivers of the marine CO2 system.