Dutkiewicz, Stephanie: MIT (Project Lead)
Project Funding:
2017 - 2020
NRA: 2016 NASA: Interdisciplinary Research in Earth Science
Funded by NASA, Other US Funding: NASA
Abstract:
Phytoplankton play key roles as the base of the marine food web and as a crucial component in the earth's carbon cycle. Understanding how ocean dynamics influence plankton ecology will add to basic knowledge and inform studies of higher-level marine organism habitat. Here we propose to examine how ocean dynamics across an unprecedented range of scales (from basin-scale gyre circulation to fronts, eddies, filaments, and long internal waves) set, transport, and re-organize phytoplankton communities. We will use a combination of satellite data, extensive flow cytometry observations, other existing in-situ measurements, and modeling to achieve these goals. Our proposal brings together an interdisciplinary team with expertise in physical oceanography, physical ocean models, ecology, marine ecosystem models, satellite oceanography, biological oceanography, computation and data analytics.
We propose to study: (1) The combination of physical mechanisms on scales from 1 to 1000s km that control the dynamic phytoplankton community biogeography; (2) The observable signatures of these multiscale biogeographical patterns in satellite and in-situ data; (3) The consequences of physical processes of different scales on biogeography, biogeochemistry, higher trophic levels, and implication for vulnerability of ecosystems; (4) What is missed when the various scales are not resolved in observations and models; and (5) How observable signatures can be systematically exploited to best monitor the transport and reorganization of marine phytoplankton biogeography now and in the future.
The proposed model activity is uniquely suited to address these questions as it brings together: (i) a newly developed ecosystem model with diverse plankton communities and a detailed representation of ocean optical processes (including spectral reflectance); (ii) a physical ocean model that includes external and internal tides and can simultaneously resolve from kilometer-scale frontal dynamics to basin scales; (iii) detailed use of remote-sensing-based products such as ocean color imagery (MODIS and VIIRS), high-resolution sea surface temperature, and AVISO sea surface height data sets; as well as (iv) in-situ field data, in particular the large database of fine-scale phytoplankton distribution emerging from over 100,000 flow cytometry samples collected every kilometer during 32 transects conducted across the North Pacific.
The proposed effort links to all 5 criteria stated on the solicitation by: a) providing detailed new knowledge of the multiple scales that control phytoplankton biogeography, which in turn directly affects the carbon cycle and marine food webs; b) utilizing of satellite data products extensively and aiming to understand what satellite sensors can tell us about phytoplankton biogeography; c) using diagnostics to elucidate the physical, biogeochemical, and biological causative controls on community biogeography at multiple scales; d) having a team that encompasses field-going biological oceanographers, satellite oceanographers, ecologists, computer modelers, and high-end data analysts; and e) being directly responsive to subelement 4 Life in a Moving Ocean. The framework we propose for looking across scales of motion will help us â€oeunderstand better the dynamics of marine biogeographic provinces, which regularly reconstitute themselves temporally and spatially across the global ocean.The work will leverage and bolster existing NASA investments in innovative observations and modeling of physical and biological ocean processes. Project outcomes will contribute to the development of systematic approaches for exploiting next-generation remote sensing missions with higher spatial, temporal, and waveband resolution, including the PACE and SWOT missions. Two post-docs and an undergraduate student will be provided a highly interdisciplinary environment, in which they can gain expertise in satellite, in-situ observation, and numerical models.
Publications:
Kuhn, A. M., Dutkiewicz, S., Jahn, O., Clayton, S., Rynearson, T. A., Mazloff, M. R., Barton, A. D. 2019. Temporal and Spatial Scales of Correlation in Marine Phytoplankton Communities. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. 124(12), 9417-9438. DOI: 10.1029/2019JC015331
Mangolte, I., Levy, M., Dutkiewicz, S., Clayton, S., Jahn, O. 2022. Plankton community response to fronts: winners and losers. Journal of Plankton Research. 44(2), 241-258. DOI: 10.1093/plankt/fbac010
Ribalet, F., Berthiaume, C., Hynes, A., Swalwell, J., Carlson, M., Clayton, S., Hennon, G., Poirier, C., Shimabukuro, E., White, A., Armbrust, E. V. 2019. SeaFlow data v1, high-resolution abundance, size and biomass of small phytoplankton in the North Pacific. Scientific Data. 6(1). DOI: 10.1038/s41597-019-0292-2
Wilson, S. T., Hawco, N. J., Armbrust, E. V., Barone, B., Bjorkman, K. M., Boysen, A. K., Burgos, M., Burrell, T. J., Casey, J. R., DeLong, E. F., Dugenne, M., Dutkiewicz, S., Dyhrman, S. T., Ferron, S., Follows, M. J., Foreman, R. K., Funkey, C. P., Harke, M. J., Henke, B. A., Hill, C. N., Hynes, A. M., Ingalls, A. E., Jahn, O., Kelly, R. L., Knapp, A. N., Letelier, R. M., Ribalet, F., Shimabukuro, E. M., Tabata, R. K. S., Turk-Kubo, K. A., White, A. E., Zehr, J. P., John, S., Karl, D. M. 2019. Kilauea lava fuels phytoplankton bloom in the North Pacific Ocean. Science. 365(6457), 1040-1044. DOI: 10.1126/science.aax4767
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
