FAPESP - Satellite estimates of marine net community production in the South Atlantic from Sentinel-3.

大气中的CO2从工业化前的280微大气压上升到今天的370微大气压。如果人为排放的二氧化碳继续以目前的速度增长，预计在今后100年内这一数字将翻一番。微小的海洋藻类（浮游植物）能够通过光合作用固定二氧化碳，因此可以通过将其吸入海洋来减少大气中的二氧化碳。光合作用涉及一系列酶控制的反应，从捕获光能开始，到固定二氧化碳以建立浮游植物细胞。一些固定碳通过呼吸作用流失。海洋细菌，被称为浮游动物和浮游植物本身的微观动物在夜间呼吸。浮游植物光合作用和固定碳的程度以及细菌-浮游动物（或海洋浮游生物）群落呼吸碳的程度控制着二氧化碳是从大气中吸入海洋还是从海洋释放到大气中。该提案的总体目标是增进我们对南大西洋和巴西海岸海洋浮游生物群落如何潜在地调节大气CO2浓度的理解。浮游植物固碳作用可利用卫星传感器从空间进行监测。欧洲航天局将于2015年秋季发射一个新的卫星传感器。我们将利用这颗新卫星的数据，与巴西一家研究所合作研究这一现象。研究结果将有利于英国和巴西的气候变化研究。申请人正在申请RCUK-FAPESP牵头机构协议

Atmospheric CO2 has risen from 280 micro-atmospheres during preindustrial times to 370 micro-atmospheres today. This is predicted to double over the next 100 years if anthropogenic emissions of CO2 continue at their current rate. The microscopic marine algae (the phytoplankton), are able to fix CO2 through photosynthesis and can therefore reduce atmospheric CO2 by drawing it down into the ocean. Photosynthesis involves a series of enzymatic controlled reactions that start with capturing light energy and finish with fixing CO2 to build phytoplankton cells. Some of the fixed carbon is lostthrough respiration. Marine bacteria, the microscopic animals known as the zooplankton and phytoplankton themselves during the night time respire. The extent to which phytoplankton photosynthesize and fix carbon and the bacteria-zoophytoplankton (or marine plankton) community respires carbon controls whether CO2 is drawn down from the atmosphere to the ocean or is released to the atmosphere from the ocean. The overall objective of this proposal is to improve our understanding of how the marine plankton community in the South Atlantic and the coast of Brazil potentially regulate the atmospheric CO2 concentration. Phytoplankton carbon fixation can be monitored from space using satellite sensors. A new satellite sensor, that has the capability to do this, will be launched by the European Space Agency in autumn 2015. We will use data from this new satellite to study this phenomena in collaboration with a Brazilian Research Institute. The results will benefit both UK and Brazilian research on climate change. The RCUK-FAPESP Lead Agency Agreement is being applied by the applicants