BN42A:
A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Biological Carbon Pump: Understanding Its Efficiency and Predicting Its Future I


Session ID#: 37061

Session Description:
The biological carbon pump (BCP) transports organic carbon away from the atmosphere to the deep-ocean and sediments, influencing atmospheric CO2levels. The efficiency of the BCP — ratio between fluxes to the deep ocean and primary productivity in the surface ocean — has been intensely studied for the past four decades. Multiple mechanisms contribute to the flux of organic matter to the ocean interior. Recently it has become increasingly clear that complex ecosystem interactions such as phytoplankton community composition and heterotrophic food webs, rather than primary production alone, influence the ability of the oceans to sequester organic carbon. Yet, the mechanisms controlling both the magnitude of carbon export and its fate in the ocean mesopelagic zone are not well understood and a multidisciplinary approach is needed to improve our understanding of these processes. We encourage submissions of field, experimental and modelling studies focusing on:

  • Innovative techniques and models to quantify BCP efficiency
  • Ecosystem processes (e.g. bloom phenology, plankton physiology, particle properties, controls on particle sinking rate and remineralisation)
  • Reconciliation of the discrepancy between POC sinking out of the surface ocean and carbon demand in the dark ocean.
  • Budget calculations and models that predict future BCP in a changing climate
Primary Chair:  Maria Villa-Alfageme, Universidad de Sevilla, Applied Physics II, Sevilla, Spain
Co-chairs:  Anna Belcher, NERC British Antarctic Survey, OBE, Cambridge, United Kingdom, Raffaele Bernardello, Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, Climate prediction, Barcelona, Spain and Matthieu Bressac, University of Tasmania, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), Hobart, Australia; Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
Moderators:  Raffaele Bernardello, Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, Climate prediction, Barcelona, Spain, Matthieu Bressac, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia; University of Tasmania, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), Hobart, Australia and Maria Villa-Alfageme, Universidad de Sevilla, Applied Physics II, Sevilla, Spain
Student Paper Review Liaisons:  Raffaele Bernardello, Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, Climate prediction, Barcelona, Spain and Maria Villa-Alfageme, Universidad de Sevilla, Applied Physics II, Sevilla, Spain
Index Terms:

1615 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling [GLOBAL CHANGE]
4805 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling [OCEANOGRAPHY: BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL]
4806 Carbon cycling [OCEANOGRAPHY: BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL]
4815 Ecosystems, structure, dynamics, and modeling [OCEANOGRAPHY: BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL]
Cross-Topics:
  • CT - Chemical Tracers, Organic Matter and Trace Elements
  • IS - Ocean Observatories, Instrumentation and Sensing Technologies
  • OM - Ocean Modeling

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

The Fractal Dimension of Marine Aggregates: An overlooked parameter in determining particle properties and interactions (322828)
Adrian Burd, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States, Kendra L Daly, University of South Florida, College of Marine Science, St. Petersburg, FL, United States, Anusha Dissanayake, Jackson, MS, United States, Simone Francis, University of California Santa Barbara, Marine Science Institute, Santa Barbara, CA, United States and Uta Passow, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
PARASITIC FUNGI ACT ON DIATOMS’ POPULATION GROWTH AND AGGREGATE FORMATION (320911)
Isabell Klawonn1, Silke Van den Wyngaert2, Carolina Cisternas-Novoa3, Tim Walles4, Clara Maria Flintrop5, Jens Christian Nejstgaard2, Morten Iversen6,7, Maiko Kagami8 and Hans-Peter Grossart2, (1)IGB Berlin, Berlin, Germany, (2)Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Dep. 3, Experimental Limnology, Stechlin/OT Neuglobsow, Germany, (3)GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany, (4)IGB-Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Germany, (5)Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, SeaPump, Am Handelshafen 12, 27570 Bremerhaven, Germany, (6)MARUM - University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany, (7)Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz-Center for Polar and Marine Research Bremerhaven, Bremerhaven, Germany, (8)Faculty of Science, Toho University, Japan
Relationships Between Microbial Production and Sinking Particle Fluxes in the Mesopelagic Waters of the Subtropical North Pacific (324595)
Matthew Church1, Alexa Nelson2, John Ranieri1, Natalie Dornan2 and Donn Viviani2, (1)University of Montana, Flathead Lake Biological Station, Polson, MT, United States, (2)University of Hawaii, Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education, Honolulu, HI, United States
Exploring the effects of warming on microbial particle degradation and its implications for global carbon export (303398)
Emma Cavan, University of Tasmania, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Hobart, TAS, Australia and Philip W Boyd, IMAS, ACE-CRC, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
Particle Flux and Biogeochemistry of Sinking Organic Matter in the Peruvian Oxygen Minimum Zone (308240)
Carolina Cisternas-Novoa, Frederic A.C. Le Moigne and Anja Engel, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany
The Export and Fate of Marine Dissolved Organic Carbon (326726)
Timothy J DeVries and Saeed Roshan, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United States
Temporal variability of episodic organic carbon deposition events in the abyssal northeast Pacific (324088)
Kenneth Smith1, Henry Ruhl2, Christine Huffard1, Monique Messié3 and Mati Kahru4, (1)Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, CA, United States, (2)National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom, (3)MBARI, Moss Landing, CA, United States, (4)Univ California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States

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