Key challenge: Climate change
How will ocean biogeochemical cycles respond to future
climate change?
The seas and oceans are fundamental to sustaining life on Earth.
They modulate climate and weather, storing and cycling over 90% of
the Earth’s carbon dioxide and capturing over 90% of the increase
in the Earth’s heat content in the last few decades. They are also
thought to play a major role in climate via the uptake and release
of climate-active gases, thus modifying the chemistry of the
atmosphere.
Climate models predict that changes in the Earth's climate will
continue to rise through the next hundred years with the extent of
change largely dependent on future greenhouse gas emissions. Public
awareness of climate change effects has largely been centred on
changing sea-levels and global warming, but it is increasingly
evident that, as atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolves in the ocean,
it will become more acidic with potentially serious consequences
for marine life.
PML scientists are active in describing the extent of marine
climate change; they have access to world-class remote imaging
and some of the best long-term biological and physical data sets in
existence. When linked to oceanographic and climatic models this
gives PML scientists a strong basis for predicting the
future marine climate and the biological properties of animals and
plants living within our changing oceans. In particular, PML has
developed a strong expertise in forecasting the potential impact of
an increase in
ocean acidification and has been invited to disseminate these
findings to colleagues and policy makers worldwide.
Relevant projects
- Atlantic
Meridional Transect (AMT)
The Atlantic Meridional Transect is a
multidisciplinary programme, co-ordinated by PML, which undertakes
biological, chemical and physical oceanographic research during an
annual voyage between the UK and destinations in the South
Atlantic, a distance of up to 13,500km. This transect crosses a
range of ecosystems from sub-polar to tropical and from euphotic
shelf seas and upwelling systems to oligotrophic mid-ocean
gyres.
- Western Channel Observatory
(WCO)
The Western Channel Observatory is an
oceanographic time-series and marine biodiversity reference site in
the Western English Channel that has been operating for over a
century and is currently maintained by
PML.
- European Project on OCean Acidification
(EPOCA)
The goal of the EPOCA project is to advance
our understanding of the biological, ecological, biogeochemical,
and societal implications of ocean acidification.
EPOCA aims to document the changes in ocean chemistry and
biogeography across space and time and to determine the sensitivity
of marine organisms, communities and ecosystems to ocean
acidification.
- Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) ICON
cruise
The aim of the upwelling cruise, SOLAS-ICON,
was to determine the hydrodynamics of an upwelling plume off the NW
African coast, in order to characterise its impact upon the
physical, photochemical and microbiological processes contributing
to ocean-atmosphere exchange of biogenic
gases.
-
Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) Investigation
of the Near Surface Production of Iodocarbons: Rates and Exchanges
(INSPIRE) cruise
The INSPIRE cruise focused on the tropical
Atlantic (around Cape Verde), studying the production of trace
gases that contain iodine. A combination of water column
sampling and incubation studies were carried out in order to
measure iodocarbon concentrations in the water and
determine the amount being emitted to the
atmosphere.
- UK Ocean Acidification
Research Programme (UKOARP)
The 5 year UK Ocean Acidification Research
Programme is the UK’s response to growing concerns over ocean
acidification. The programme aims to; reduce uncertainties in
predictions of carbonate chemistry changes and their effects on the
marine environment; understand the responses to ocean acidification
by marine organisms, biodiversity and ecosystems and to improve
understanding of their resistance or susceptibility to
acidification; and provide data and effective advice to policy
makers and managers of marine
bioresources.
- European Space Agency Ocean
Colour Climate Change Initiative
The ESA Climate Change Initiative aims to use
Earth observation to help generate Essential Climate Variables
(such as ozone content, snow cover, fire disturbance and ocean
salinity) for our planet in a bid to unlock the complexities
of climate change.
- Marine e-Data Observatory Network
(MeDON)
MeDON aims to develop, test and disseminate a
new concept of coastal monitoring based on a network of innovative
real-time cabled marine observatories, and is orientated towards
end users. Cabled seafloor observatories are an emerging technology
capable of providing an effective platform for real-time and
high-resolution
monitoring.