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，海洋由于吸收人为二氧化碳而变得更加酸性，预计在目前的情况下这一过程将继续下去。了解碳酸盐化学的空间和时间变异性对于确定海洋酸化热点和开始预测其对海洋生态系统的影响至关重要。传统的船基观测无法提供了解海洋CO2系统的全球和局部变化所需的空间或时间覆盖范围。然而，自主技术具有大规模高分辨率实时观测的潜力（例如，请参阅Argo项目www.argo.net），并可以加速我们对海洋二氧化碳循环如何变化的了解。NOC的海洋技术和工程小组是开发海洋传感器技术的世界领导者。用于现场测量pH值、总碱度（TA）和溶解无机碳（DIC）的新型传感器已达到技术成熟度，可在自主平台上集成和部署，首次实现海洋CO2系统的直接现场表征。该项目的目的是通过新的科学应用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.