Lead institution:
National Oceanography Centre – United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK)
The ocean stores huge amounts of carbon dioxide that would otherwise be in the atmosphere. Marine organisms play a critical role, but emerging evidence indicates that climate models are not fully accounting for their impact. This programme will deliver the new understanding of the role of marine life that is needed to make robust predictions of future ocean carbon storage.
To do so BIO-Carbon will address 3 major challenges:
- Challenge 1: how does marine life affect the potential for seawater to absorb CO2, and how will this change?
- Challenge 2: how will the rate at which marine life converts dissolved CO2 into organic carbon change?
- Challenge 3: how will climate change-induced shifts in respiration by the marine ecosystem affect the future ocean storage of carbon?
This Project is hosted by the Ocean Decade Programme Joint Exploration of the Twilight Zone Ocean Network (JETZON)
Start Date: 04/01/2022
End Date: 31/12/2026
Lead Contact: Adrian Martin (adrian.martin@noc.ac.uk)