Ocean ecosystems play a critical role in the Earth’s carbon cycle and the quantification of their impacts for both present conditions and for predictions into the future remains one of the greatest challenges in oceanography. The goal of the EXport Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) Science Plan is to develop a predictive understanding of the export and fate of global ocean net primary production (NPP) and its implications for present and future climates. The achievement of this goal requires a quantification of the mechanisms that control the export of carbon from the euphotic zone as well as its fate in the underlying “twilight zone” where some fraction of exported carbon will be sequestered in the ocean’s interior on time scales of months to millennia. In particular, EXPORTS will advance satellite diagnostic and numerical prognostic models by comparing relationships among the ecological, biogeochemical and physical oceanographic processes that control carbon cycling across a range of ecosystem and carbon cycling states. EXPORTS will achieve this through a combination of ship and robotic field sampling, satellite remote sensing and numerical modeling. Through a coordinated, process-oriented approach, EXPORTS will foster new insights on ocean carbon cycling that maximizes its societal relevance through the achievement of U.S. and International research agency goals and will be a key step towards our understanding of the Earth as an integrated system.
- Need to understand, quantify and predict how ecosystem processes transfer organic matter to depth.
- Need to improve estimates of carbon export from the euphotic zone (4 to 13 PG C y -1)
- Need to quantify the attenuation of export below euphotic zone (the twilight zone)
Advances in Remote Sensing (& PACE!!) & autonomous tools make it time!
- How do upper ocean ecosystem characteristics determine the vertical transfer of organic matter from the well-lit surface ocean?
- What controls the efficiency of vertical transfer of organic matter below the well-lit surface ocean?
- How can the knowledge gained be used to reduce uncertainties in contemporary & future estimates of the export and fates of NPP?
NASA’s satellite ocean-color data record has revolutionized our understanding of global marine systems by providing synoptic and repeated global observations of phytoplankton stocks and rates of primary production. EXPORTS is designed to advance the utility of NASA ocean color assets to predict how changes in ocean primary production will impact the global carbon cycle. EXPORTS will create a predictive understanding of both the export of organic carbon from the well-lit, upper ocean (or euphotic zone) and its fate in the underlying “twilight zone” (depths of 500 m or more) where a variable fraction of that exported organic carbon is respired back to CO2. Ultimately, it is this deep organic carbon transport and its sequestration that defines the impact of ocean biota on atmospheric CO2 levels and hence climate.
EXPORTS will generate a new, detailed understanding of ocean carbon transport processes and pathways linking phytoplankton primary production within the euphotic zone to the export and fate of produced organic matter in the underlying twilight zone using a combination of field campaigns, remote sensing and numerical modeling. NASA’s upcoming advanced ocean measurement mission, PACE, will be aimed at quantifying carbon cycle processes far beyond today’s ocean color retrievals of phytoplankton pigment concentrations, optical properties and primary production rates. The overarching objective for EXPORTS is to ensure the success of these future satellite mission goals by establishing mechanistic relationships between remotely sensed signals and carbon cycle processes. Through a process-oriented approach, EXPORTS will foster new insights on ocean carbon cycling that will maximize its societal relevance and be a key component in the U.S. investment to understand Earth as an integrated system.
If approved → EXPORTS field campaign starts with fieldwork starting in 2018.
Late year: If EXPORTS approved → Announcement of opportunity will be released
Oct 1: Science Definition Team disbanded
Oct 1: Submit Final EXPORTS Implementation Plan to NASA HQ
TBD: 3rd Science Definition Team Meeting
Late-July: EXPORTS Draft Implementation Plan presentation at the U.S. OCB Meeting in Woods Hole, MA
Mid-July: Public Comment Period for Draft EXPORTS Implementation Plan
TBD: 2nd Science Definition Team Meeting
Mar 3: Proposals due for NASA OBB research announcement>>
Jan 7: Notice of Intent due for NASA OBB research announcement>>
Jan: 1st Science Definition Team Meeting met in Lanham MD, Jan 7-8
Oct: Science Definition Team Selected >>
Jul: Call for members of the Science Definition Team for EXPORTS >>
May: Final EXPORTS Science Plan submitted to NASA
Feb: Panel review of the EXPORTS Science Plan and public comments completed
Aug: Formal public comment period ended
June: Draft EXPORTS Science Plan submitted to NASA for consideration and formal public comment period started
Feb: Town hall at the Ocean Sciences Meeting and start of the informal public comment period
June: Experts meeting at UC Santa Barbara
Oct: EXPORTS selected for Scoping Study (originally called COOPEX—Controls on Open Ocean Productivity and Export Experiment)
