Collaborative Research: Air-Sea CO2 Fluxes and Surface Physical Processes in the Labrador Sea

在拉布拉多海春季水华期间，将对二氧化碳的海气通量和控制它的地表物理过程进行研究。拉布拉多海作为北大西洋深水(NADW)形成区之一具有重要意义。在晚春的几个月里，拉布拉多海经历了强烈的浮游生物水华，是二氧化碳的强烈汇。随后冬季的深度对流将富含二氧化碳的水混合在整个水柱中。新形成的NADW通过深流系统向南输送到南极。考虑到大约1000年的环流时间尺度，NADW内的大气气体基本上是被隔离的。虽然全球海洋的中纬度地区是同样强大的二氧化碳汇，但在这些纬度被吸收到海洋中的气体仍然留在近地表水域，并在十年时间尺度上返回大气层。因此，拉布拉多海的气体交换特征特别令人感兴趣，因为它是全球海洋中为数不多的长期二氧化碳汇区域之一。预测和预报大面积大气-海洋二氧化碳通量的能力对于量化邻近陆地的碳收支也是必要的。这项工作的更广泛影响涉及到我们预测大气二氧化碳水平的能力的提高，以及评估在各种情况下它可能如何改变气候。围绕大气和海洋之间二氧化碳通量的巨大不确定性使我们无法确定人为二氧化碳汇在海洋和陆地生物圈之间的分配。这种不确定性也限制了我们对未来大气二氧化碳水平进行准确建模的能力。我们提出的过程研究将提高全球海洋二氧化碳通量估计的准确性，并加深我们对其变化原因的理解。该项目将邀请学生担任本科生和研究生的研究助理。迈阿密大学是一所西班牙裔服务机构，因此促进了代表不足的群体参与科学和工程。这些数据将通过万维网的几个数据库提供。该项目将有助于通过迈阿密大学院长办公室协调的积极外联活动。

A study of the air-sea flux of carbon dioxide and the surface physical processes controlling it will be conducted during the Labrador Sea spring bloom. The Labrador Sea is highly significant as one of the areas of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) formation. During the late spring months, the Labrador Sea experiences a strong plankton bloom, and is an intense sink for carbon dioxide. Deep convection during the subsequent winter mixes the carbon dioxide rich waters throughout the water column. The newly formed NADW is transported southward towards the Antarctic, via a system of deep currents. Given the circulation time scale of order 1000 years, atmospheric gases within the NADW are essentially sequestered. While mid-latitude areas of the global ocean are equally strong sinks of carbon dioxide, gases absorbed into the ocean at these latitudes remain in the near surface waters, and are returned to the atmosphere on the decadal time scale. Hence the gas exchange characteristics in the Labrador Sea are of particular interest because it is one of the few areas of the global ocean that is a long term carbon dioxide sink. The ability to predict and forecast air-sea carbon dioxide fluxes over large areas is also necessary to quantify the adjacent terrestrial carbon budget.The broader impacts of this work relate to improvement of our ability to predict atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and to assess how it might change climate under various scenarios. The large uncertainty surrounding the flux of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere and ocean prevent us from determining the partitioning of the sink of anthropogenic carbon dioxide between the ocean and the terrestrial biosphere. This uncertainty also limits our ability to accurately model future atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. The process study we have proposed will improve the accuracy of the global ocean carbon dioxide flux estimates and increase our understanding of the causes of its variability. The project will involve students as undergraduate and post-graduate research assistants. The University of Miami is a Hispanic Serving Institution and thereby fosters the participation of under-represented groups in science and engineering. The data will be made available through several data bases via the World Wide Web. The project will contribute to the active outreach activities coordinated through the Dean's Office at the University of Miami.