Yvon-Lewis, Shari: Texas A&M (Project Lead)
Project Funding:
2008 - 2011
NRA: 2007 NASA: Carbon Cycle Science
Funded by NASA
Abstract:
Among the potentially greatest environmental impacts of the release of fossil fuel CO2 to the atmosphere is the "acidification" of the world's oceans. The negative affects on calcifying organisms, such as coral reefs, is of particular concern. In order to better understand this process and make predictions for the future, it is necessary to document the on-going changes in the carbonate chemistry of the upper ocean. Although empirical relationships of global surface water total alkalinity (TA) with salinity and temperature were recently derived using JGOFS/WOCE survey data, currently insufficient coverage of the Western Atlantic and Caribbean Sea prevent derivation of similar relationships for this region. This is a non-trivial omission as these waters house the vast majority of Atlantic coral reef ecosystems which may be impacted by ocean acidification. The central objectives of this research are to 1) conduct a comprehensive CO2 partial pressure (pCO2,sw) and TA survey of Greater Caribbean Region (GCR) surface waters; 2) derive a regionally specific algorithm for application to coupled satellite and modeled data sets to generate GCR seasonal fields of sea surface TA.; 3) couple sea surface pCO2 - TA algorithms to generate GCR seasonal fields of sea surface pH and aragonite saturation state; and 4) estimate changes in GCR sea surface pH and aragonite saturation between 1999-2009. A unique aspect of the proposed research will be the use of the Explorer of the Seas and the Natural Gas carrier from Methanol Holdings Ltd., on a total of 9 cruises, without the need for the usual major costs of ship operations for such a large regional field program.
2011 NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Joint Science Workshop Poster(s)
- Ocean Acidification of the Greater Caribbean Region 1999-2009
-- (Dwight Gledhill, Rik Wanninkhof, Shari Yvon-Lewis, Denis Pierrot)
[abstract]
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
