MCA Pilot PUI: Proxy-model comparison using carbon isotopes from annually banded marine calcifiers and ocean circulation inverse models to evaluate coastal carbon cycle processes

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The ocean is a large sink of anthropogenic carbon from the atmosphere. Thus, calculating the movement of carbon into the oceans is important to understand future atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Ocean climate models are a powerful tool to understand the processes that control carbon cycling. However, large discrepancies exist among data estimates and an ocean circulation inverse model (OCIM) that models carbon isotopes in the ocean. This project will use data obtained from proxy archives to perform a model-proxy data comparison as an independent test of the model-simulated carbon isotopes. The research would provide the first proxy data – model output comparison of carbon isotope records from marine carbonates and simulations from OCIMs to better understand carbon cycling in the coastal regions of the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans. The comparison would address offsets and timing differences due to proxy archive and model biases related to seasonality, air-sea gas exchange, proxy archive chronological uncertainty, and broader environmental/climatic processes not constrained in the model. This project will analyze discrepancies between model output and proxy data to better constrain the carbon cycling processes critical to understanding the removal of anthropogenic carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and into the oceans. Thus, this work will contribute to societally relevant understanding of the processes that mitigate ongoing climate change. The project will support a mid-career researcher at a primary undergraduate institution. At the interface of societally relevant climate science and numerical modeling, this project will train undergraduate students through research experiences and will incorporate content into the curriculum of the new science department, thus providing an investment in workforce capabilities that will extend beyond the project duration.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.