Collaborative Research: Atmospheric Nucleation of Complex Mixtures Emitted from Marine Planktonic Communities

该项目的重点是调查各种海洋浮游生物群落的排放如何导致大气中的颗粒成核，以及这些排放如何随着环境的变化而演变。粒子成核提供了形成海洋云的种子粒子的相当一部分，海洋云反射入射的太阳辐射，同时掩盖吸收辐射的海洋。由于粒子成核的形成和速率影响云的亮度和寿命，因此定量海洋成核速率对于准确预测云在气候变化中的作用是非常重要的。（2）测量槽养海洋浮游植物在不同生长阶段产生的成核反应、成核势和排放概况;（3）预测排放廓线、成核反应、从缅因州海湾采集的天然海洋浮游生物群落的成核势;（4）评估春季和夏末/在缅因州的海洋排放和大气成核下降，并与目标3中观察到的结果进行比较。是大幅扩展全球难以进入地区的成核测量，并提供一种简单的计算方法来预测不同环境和时间点的成核率。在未来，气候变化可能会导致海洋区域，以前不是气溶胶颗粒的重要来源，发挥更关键的作用，在确定地球的辐射预算和climate.The PI计划与两个高中科学教师从资金不足的社区匹兹堡，宾夕法尼亚州开发一个以学生为中心，大气化学和气候课程，可以纳入一个学期的化学课。该项目的最终目标是将浮游植物排放量的实验设计和数据分析纳入当地两所高中实施的大气化学模块。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This project is focused on investigating how the emissions from various marine planktonic communities lead to particle nucleation in the atmosphere and how these emissions might evolve with a changing environment. Particle nucleation provides a substantial fraction of the seed particles for forming marine clouds that reflect incoming solar radiation while simultaneously obscuring radiation-absorbing oceans. Since the formation and rate at which particles nucleate influence the brightness and lifetimes of clouds, quantifying marine nucleation rates is important for accurately predicting the role of clouds in climate change.The objectives of this project are to: (1) Verify that the Nucleation Potential Model can quantify the nucleation potential of laboratory-generated complex mixtures; (2) Measure the nucleation reactions, nucleation potentials, and emission profiles produced from tank-grown marine phytoplankton during various stages of growth; (3) Predict the seasonal and spatial variation in emission profiles, nucleation reactions, and nucleation potentials from natural marine planktonic communities collected from Gulf of Maine; and (4) Evaluate spring and late summer/fall marine emissions and atmospheric nucleation at the Gulf of Maine and compare with those observed in Objective 3.The ultimate impact of this research is to dramatically expand nucleation measurements in difficult-to-access regions worldwide and provide a computationally simple method for predicting nucleation rates in diverse environments and points in time. In the future, climate change may cause regions of the oceans that were not previously significant sources of aerosol particles to play more critical roles in determining Earth's radiative budget and climate.The PIs plan to work with two high school science teachers from underfunded neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, PA to develop a student-centered, atmospheric chemistry and climate curriculum that can be incorporated into a semester-long chemistry class. The final objective of the project is to incorporate the experimental design and data analysis of measured phytoplankton emissions into the atmospheric chemistry module implemented at two local high schools.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.