The aim of SOLAS is to provide a framework to encourage the fullest participation of multinational, regional, and national efforts in its scientific activities. It does not impose a rigid template on the nature of these efforts.
Support letter from SOLAS
If your research proposal is within the science areas defined in the SOLAS 2015-2025 Science Plan and Organisation, you could ask for a letter of support from SOLAS to add to your proposal. To do so, send the SOLAS International Project Office a summary of the research activities you're proposing precising which SOLAS activities it adresses, also mention the features which you wish to have outlined within the support letter.
Once your project gets funded, think about requesting a SOLAS endorsement for it.
Project endorsement by SOLAS
If you are principal investigator of a funded research project within the science areas defined in the SOLAS 2015-2025 Science Plan and Organisation, you could ask SOLAS to formaly endorse your project. To do so, fill up the downloadable form and send it to the SOLAS International Project Office. In addition if there is a national representative in your country, inform him/her about your project.
With SOLAS endorsement, the highlights of your project will be disseminated throughout the air-sea research community via SOLAS media outlets (website, e-news, announcements, Twitter, etc.). To facilitate these communications, we ask that you provide the IPO with timely updates on your activities.
Current SOLAS endorsed projects
SOLAS currently has a number of endorsed projects along with many other projects which are conducted under the SOLAS umbrella.
REEBUS - Role of Eddies in the Carbon Pump of Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems
Endorsed since September 2019
REEBUS is a national collaborative research project, which has received funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Coastal upwelling areas belong to the world’s biologically most productive marine areas. The upwelling in these regions is driven by trade winds blowing parallel to the coast. The combination of trade wind direction and earth rotation causes an offshore transportation of surface water masses allowing cold and nutrient-rich deep water masses to up well. Upwelled surface waters are characterized by a lower temperature, lower oxygen and chlorophyll concentrations and increased nutrient and carbon concentrations. The input of nutrient-rich upwelling water to coastal areas leads to an increase in primary production and turns upwelling regions into highly productive regions, providing a rich biodiversity and approx. 20 percent of the world's fish harvest. Therefore, many of the coastal upwelling areas are of great socio-economic importance, for example, the majority of the West African countries are economically dependent on the fishing industry in upwelling regions.
Upwelling systems are vulnerable to the major global man-made environmental changes such as ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation. Further, it is expected that upwelling systems will be indirectly influenced by climate change due to changing trade wind conditions and intensities. The responses of upwelling systems to these environmental changes especially in regards to synergistic or antagonistic effects have hardly been integrated so far. Therefore, reliable predictions of the expected changes within these upwelling systems are not possible yet.
The REEBUS project is based on the observation that oceanic eddies play a central role for the physical, chemical and biological properties of coastal upwelling systems. It is hypothesized that climate change will lead to changes in the statistics and/or characteristics of oceanic eddies which in turn will possibly also influence the characteristics of upwelling systems.
A major goal of the REEBUS project is to gain a better quantitative understanding of the dynamics of mesoscale eddies (eddies with a diameter of approx. 100 km) with a special focus on the coupling of physical, chemical and biological processes within these eddies. Furthermore, the REEBUS project will focus on carbon dioxide (CO2) source/sink mechanisms of mesoscale eddies as well as on the biological carbon pump in the eastern boundary upwelling systems. In addition, it will be investigated how eddies influence their oligotrophic periphery, both in the pelagic as well as in the deep-sea benthic environment. The regional research focus of REEBUS lies on the upwelling area off the coast of West Africa, one of the most productive upwelling systems.
A central part of the REEBUS project are three research expeditions coordinated by GEOMAR and performed with the R/V Meteor to investigate oceanic eddies which are generated off the coast of Mauritania. During these three field campaigns a novel, multi-layered observation approach combined with process models are applied to investigate eddy dynamics and their effects on the biogeochemical and biological system.
Project duration: 01 Jan 2019 - 31 Dec 2021
Project website: https://www.ebus-climate-change.de/reebus
Contacts:
Project coordinator: Prof. Dr. Arne Körtzinger (akoertzinger@geomar.de)
Project manager: Dr. Esther Rickert (erickert@geomar.de)
AMBIEnCE - Impact of atmospheric multi-stressors to coastal marine systems in a changing climate scenario
Endorsed since March 2019
AMBIEnCE is a National collaborative research project, which has received funding from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, in the 02/SAICT/2017 – Scientific Research & Technological Development Projects Call.
AMBIEnCE project aims at assessing the impact of atmospheric organic aerosol (OA) deposition on the molecular composition and reactivity of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in different coastal marine systems. AMBIEnCE also aims at exploring how the intrinsic chemical features of both OA and DOM drive the solubility and bioavailability of atmospheric-derived trace metals (TM) in seawater. Air particles deposition is an important source of new organic and inorganic nutrients, and potentially toxic TM to seawater. These atmospheric multi-stressors are delivered in very different chemical forms and amounts, impacting the marine DOM pump in ways still poorly understood. The extent to which OA and DOM modify the solubility/bioavailability of atmospheric TM are also unknown due to practical difficulties in studying post-depositional processes.
AMBIEnCE is a high-risk/high-gain project that offers a unique approach to assess the impact of atmospheric organic and inorganic particles deposition on the functioning of two coastal marine systems which are influenced by different atmospheric inputs, variable in time and intensity: Ria de Aveiro and Tagus Estuary. The first stage entails the collection of air particles and seawater at both sites in order to unravel the structural features of OA and marine DOM, and TM content in aerosols and seawater. Afterwards, aerosol seeding experiments in lab-made microcosms will be carried out aiming at mimic natural and anthropogenic OA inputs to surface seawater. This aims at capturing changes in OA composition settling through water column and their effect on marine DOM and TM composition/persistent. These trials will be used to assess the effect of two estuarine species (juvenile seabass & polychaetes) on marine DOM and TM content and composition, and evaluate the distribution and toxicity effects of atmospheric TM in the selected species.
The novelty of AMBIEnCE lies on the use of microcosms to accurately study over time, the effect of potential internal (estuarine species) and external (OA inputs) drivers on DOM and TM composition using real biogeochemical assemblages. Results of this project will provide in-depth knowledge on the chemical features and sources of OA and TM arriving at the marine sites, and explain how these atmospheric multi-stressors impact DOM composition and TM solubility/bioavailability. At long term, innovation created by AMBIEnCE will be maximized in a roadmap so that dissemination of foreground results to society can be optimized. To attain its goals, AMBIEnCE brings together a multidisciplinary team of analytical & environmental chemists and geochemists, with expertise in advanced analytical techniques for profiling complex matrices, and biologists with expertise in environmental toxicology, all from University of Aveiro, and a biochemist from NOVA.ID.FCT with expertise in environmental proteomics.
Project Coordinator:
Regina Duarte (regina.duarte@ua.pt)
Project website: https://projectambience.wordpress.com/
PICCOLO: Processes Influencing Carbon Cycling: Observations of the Lower limb of the Antarctic Overturning
Endorsed since October 2017
Our deficient understanding of Southern Ocean carbon uptake means that projections of future climate change are hindered. This is because net carbon uptake is determined by poorly understood biogeochemical and biological processes in the lower limb of Antarctic overturning circulation.
PICCOLO is an ambitious multi-disciplinary project that will make ground-breaking over-winter observations and use cutting-edge autonomous technologies to elucidate these processes. Multi-season observations in the deep Weddell Gyre, on the continental shelf and under sea ice will quantify rates of carbon uptake, transformation and export as water interacts with the atmosphere, cryosphere and biosphere and then sinks off the shelf into the abyss.
PICCOLO will provide a comprehensive understanding of lower limb carbon processes, and will provide the key biogeochemical information needed to improve future Earth System models.
Principal Investigators:
Karen Heywood (K.Heywood@uea.ac.uk)
Tom Bell (tbe@pml.ac.uk).
Project website: https://roses.ac.uk/piccolo/
The Great Barrier Reef as a significant source of climatically relevant aerosol particles
Endorsed since September 2016
Understanding the role of clouds in the warming and cooling of the planet, and how that role changes in a warming world is one of the biggest uncertainties climate change researchers face. A key feature in this regard is the influence on cloud properties of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), the very small atmospheric aerosol particles necessary for the nucleation of every single cloud droplet. The anthropogenic contribution to CCN is known to be large in some regions; however, the natural processes that regulate CCN over large parts of the globe are less well understood, and particularly in the Great Barrier Reef. The production of new aerosol particles from biogenic sources (forests, marine biota, etc) is a frequent phenomenon capable of affecting aerosol concentrations, and therefore CCN, on both regional and global scales. The biogenic aerosol particles therefore have a major influence on cloud properties and hence climate and the hydrological cycle. Determining the magnitude and drivers of biogenic aerosol production in different ecosystems is therefore crucial for the future development of climate models.
Stretching over 2600 km, along the coast of Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is one of the largest and most important ecosystems in Australia. This project will aim to determine the magnitude and drivers of biogenic aerosol production from the GBR.
The fundamental questions that this study will address are:
- What is the significance of this ecosystem as a natural source of aerosol particles?
- How strong is this source at the regional level?
- What is the mechanism of particle production over the GBR?
Measurements will be made via two platforms. The first is Australia’s RV Investigator which will spend 30 days at sea in close proximity to the Great Barrier Reef. The second is the new Australian AIR-BOX, a portable laboratory containing cutting edge atmospheric monitoring equipment which will be deployed downwind of the reef at Misson Beach during the voyage.
CSIRO chemical transport modelling (CTM) will be used to explore the influence of different sources (marine and terrestrial), meteorology and transport on the reactive gases and aerosols observed over the reef. CTM will also be used to explore the vertical distribution of aerosols and CCN in the MBL to determine the influence of both local and distant sources to CCN at cloud height. The data set produced will be used to test and validate aerosol production mechanisms in GLOMAP (Global Model of Aerosol Processes), which will ensure accurate representation of aerosol processes in ACCESS (Australian Community Climate Earth System Simulator).
Principal Investigator is Zoran Ristovski (z.ristovski@qut.edu.au)
Tudor Hill Marine-Atmospheric Observatory
Endorsed since June 2016
The Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) Marine-Atmospheric Observatory provides an atmospheric sampling tower and site laboratories at Tudor Hill, Bermuda, in support of ongoing and future research by the U.S. and international scientific community. This facility provides the only permanent atmospheric sampling and observation platform in the marine boundary layer of the western subtropical North Atlantic Ocean. Originally constructed in 1987, since 2002 the facility has been operated with support from the U.S. NSF Chemical Oceanography and Atmospheric Chemistry Programs. The facility is a host site for the NOAA Cooperative Air Sampling Network, NASA’s AERONET program and Environment Canada’s Global Atmospheric Passive Sampling (GAPS) program.
The objectives of the Tudor Hill program are:
1) To operate and maintain a state-of-the-art marine atmospheric sampling and observing facility at Tudor Hill, Bermuda;
2) To collect continuous meteorological data and weekly bulk-aerosol and rainwater samples, which are archived at BIOS and made freely available to other researchers;
3) To collect additional atmospheric samples and data for other investigators (primarily in longer-term time-series programs), and to provide for the use of the facility by other investigators (primarily in shorter-term intensive programs).
Principal Investigator is Andrew J. Peters (andrew.peters@bios.edu)
Website:http://www.bios.edu/research/projects/tudor-hill-marine-atmospheric-observatory/
NAAMES: North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study
Endorsed since November 2015
The North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES) is a five year investigation to resolve key processes controlling ocean system function, their influences on atmospheric aerosols and clouds and their implications for climate.
Observations obtained during four, targeted ship and aircraft measurement campaigns, combined with the continuous satellite and in situ ocean sensor records, will enable improved predictive capabilities of Earth system processes and will inform ocean management and assessment of ecosystem change.
Principal Investigator is Mike Behrenfeld (mjb@science.oregonstate.edu) and Project Manager is Mary Kleb (mary.m.kleb@nasa.gov)
Website: http://naames.larc.nasa.gov/
NETwork on Climate and Aerosols: Addressing Key Uncertainties in Remote Canadian Environments (NETCARE)
Endorsed since October 2013
To improve the accuracy of climate predictions, the direct radiative effects of aerosol and the impacts of aerosol on clouds and precipitation have to be comprehensively addressed; it is well recognized that they represent the largest uncertainties in radiative forcing estimates. Moreover, in contrast to urban regions where extensive work has been conducted, remote regions (e.g., the Canadian Arctic) remain comparatively unstudied despite the need to establish a baseline against which future change can be evaluated. With naturally low aerosol levels, such regions are particularly sensitive to anthropogenic input. According to the Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone by UNEP and WMO in 2011, reductions in black carbon emissions would substantially reduce Arctic warming over the next several decades. However, current models vary greatly in their ability to characterize aerosol in these remote regions. This leads to little confidence in our predictions of climate response to changing levels of short-lived forcing agents, such as black carbon, as regulations evolve in Asia, and as shipping and industry increase in the Arctic. Likewise, enhanced global warming will drive feedbacks in the Earth system whereby Arctic Ocean waters will open to a greater degree, thus increasing rates of DMS emission and biogenically-driven aerosol formation. Also, the predicted increase in boreal forest fires in a warmer climate may lead to more black carbon transport to remote regions. Additional uncertainties in climate predictions arise from a fundamental lack of understanding of aerosol sources, sinks, optical properties, and cloud impacts; for example, the mechanisms and impacts of ice cloud formation, an important mechanism for precipitation, are especially poorly quantified. This complexity requires a concerted approach to better define the mechanisms at play and to establish their role in the present and future climate system.
NETCARE is comprised of the leading scientists in the Canadian climate-aerosol community. The central impetus within the network is that the key uncertainties in this field must be addressed by multidisciplinary studies of interacting components of the Earth system, particularly the ocean, atmosphere, and cryosphere. As well, a range of techniques, extending from satellite and in situ field measurements, lab studies, and models including the Canadian Global Climate Model (GCM), is required to move forward. It is only through detailed field studies supported by process-level modeling that we can develop confidence in larger scale parameterizations within climate models. Similarly, measurements across a range of domains that extend from the surface through the atmosphere are needed to complement remote sensing measurements at single sites. While the fundamental understanding to be gained is widely applicable, the network will focus on the Arctic and Western Canada so as to have maximum impact. Observations will extend across the Arctic from land stations, an icebreaker, and research aircraft. As well, we will assess anthropogenic, biomass burning, and marine aerosol input to Western Canada given the potential for significant effects arising from changing Asian emissions and forest fire activity.
The outcome of this project contributes to the SOLAS Mid-Term Strategies on Ocean-derived aerosols: production, evolution and impacts and Sea-ice biogeochemistry and interactions with the atmosphere.
Dependence of dissolved organic matter cycling on atmospheric inputs of nutrients (DONUT)
Endorsed since March 2013
The main goal of DONUT is to assess how and to which extent the response of heterotrophic prokaryotes to atmospheric inputs of nutrients shape the DOM pool and modify its bioavailability. There are recent evidences of the preferential uptake of dust- derived nutrients by heterotrophic prokaryotes resulting in heterotrophic processes being more stimulated by dust pulses compared to autotrophic processes. How can we go further on our understanding of the consequences of these results on C cycling? The stimulation of bacterial respiration by dust pulses during the stratification period would decrease the amount of carbon susceptible to be exported to depth through winter mixing. Nevertheless, the efficiency of the Microbial Carbon Pump depends not only on the amount of carbon in the dissolved pool but also on the characteristics of the DOM which may modify its residence time in the water column. How and to what extent dust pulses can, through the stimulation of Hprok activity, shape the surface DOM pool remains totally unexplored and constitute one bottleneck to our advances to understand the role of atmospheric deposition on marine C cycle. The DONUT strategy is based on the experimental assessment of the transformation of DOM during bacterial degradation under simulated dust inputs.
The outcome of this project contributes to the SOLAS Mid-Term Strategy on Atmospheric control of nutrient cycling and production in the surface ocean
Marine ecosystems response in the Mediterranean experiment (MERMEX)
Endorsed since August 2011
There are still considerable uncertainties in our understanding of the complex interactions between the different forcings and their impacts on Mediterranean ecosystems. There is therefore a strong need to reach a mechanistic understanding of the relevant processes in order to predict changes in ecosystems. The most relevant issues for the future of marine ecosystems in the Mediterranean constitute the main research axes that MERMEX propose to tackle in the next 10 years.
MERMEX 2012 Annual report
Past SOLAS endorsed projects
Biological impacts of ocean acidification (BIOACID)
Endorsed since November 2009
The growing evidence of potential biological impacts of ocean acidification affirms that this global change phenomenon may pose a serious threat to marine organisms and ecosystems. Despite a wealth of knowledge on specific effects of acidification and the related changes in seawater chemistry on the physiology of individual marine taxa, many uncertainties still remain. Because the majority of studies are based on single species experiments, little is presently known about possible impacts on natural communities, food webs and ecosystems. Moreover, few studies have addressed possible interacting effects of environmental changes occurring in parallel, such as ocean acidification, warming, and deoxygenation and changes in surface layer stratification and nutrient supply. Almost completely unknown at present is the potential for evolutionary adaptation to ocean acidification.
The overarching focus of BIOACID II will be to address and better understand the chain from biological mechanisms, through individual organism responses, through food web and ecosystem effects, to economic impacts.
The second phase of BIOACID began in September 2012 and will last three years. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports the project that is coordinated by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel with 8.77 million Euros.
Annual Report of 2014
ICDC: International Carbon Dioxide Conference 2017
Endorsed since January 2016
10th International Carbon Dioxide Conference, 21-25 August 2017, Interlaken, Switzerland
The Swiss science community and the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research are proud to organize the 10th anniversary International Carbon Dioxide Conference (ICDC). The first conference of this series took place in Bern, Switzerland, and we now bring the conference back to the Bern area.
The focus of ICDC10 is on changes in carbon dioxide and the carbon cycle, and their interactions and links to climate and human activities from the regional to the global scale, and from the past into the future.
The ICDC10 will be held back-to-back with the WMO/IAEA Meeting on Carbon Dioxide, other Greenhouse Gases and Related Measurement Techniques (GGMT-2017) in Dübendorf, Switzerland
The purpose of this conference is to bring together scientists from different disciplines to work towards an integrated view on the global cycle of carbon in the Earth System. Spatial scales considered range from local and regional towards global synthesis, temporal scales from hours to millennia. Periods addressed include the contemporary, industrial, and future, as well as the last millennia, glacial/interglacial, and stadial/interstadial periods.
Topics will include:
- trends and variability in carbon stocks and fluxes
- land use and land management
- carbon-ecosystem-climate feedbacks and vulnerabilities
- extreme events
- linkages between CO2 and other greenhouse gases and between carbon and related tracers (e.g., oxygen, nutrients, and isotopes)
- direct and indirect effects of high CO2 including ocean acidification
- natural and anthropogenic drivers
- allowable anthropogenic carbon emissions to meet multiple climate targets
- emission mitigation
- information from atmospheric, oceanic, terrestrial measurements and monitoring networks, from paleo archives, from process, inverse, and Earth System models
Air-Sea Lab: Climate-air pollution interaction in coastal environment
Ended in 2017
Air-Sea Lab is an Italia-Ireland bilateral project funded by CNR. The main objective of the joint Lab is to study the interactions between air pollution and climate in the coastal environment, with particular focus on aerosol physico-chemical properties, aerosol-cloud interactions and near coastal boundary layer structure and dynamics.
AIR-SEA LAB directly addresses the following science issues from the International SOLAS Science Plan and Implementation Strategy:
Focus 1: Biogeochemical Interactions and Feedbacks Between Ocean and Atmosphere
Activity 1.1 – Marine Particle Emissions
Activity 1.2 – Trace Gas Emissions
Activity 1.3 – Dimethylsulphide & climate
Activity 1.4 – Iron and Marine Productivity
Activity 1.5 – Ocean-Atmosphere Cycling of Nitrogen
Focus 2: Exchange Processes at the Air-Sea Interface and the Role of Transport and Transformation in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Boundary Layers
Activity 2.1 – Air-Sea Interface
Activity 2.2 – Oceanic Boundary Layer
Activity 2.3 – Atmospheric Boundary Layer
Project Coordinators are Maria Cristina Facchini (mc.facchini@isac.cnr.it) and Colin O’Dowd (colin.odowd@nuigalway.ie)
Project website:
http://www.isac.cnr.it/en/projects/air-sea-lab-climate-air-pollution-interaction-coastal-environment
SOLAS Italy website: http://www.isac.cnr.it/solas/
Western Atlantic Climate Study II (WACS II)
Endorsed since October 2013
WACS II is a research cruise planned for the North Atlantic from May 19 to June 6, 2014 onboard the WHOI RV Knorr. Primary objectives include the characterization of freshly emitted SSA properties including chemical composition, size distribution, number concentration, cloud nucleating ability, light scattering and absorption. Simultaneous measurements of sea surface properties will allow for an assessment of links between seawater and SSA properties. Of particular interest is the impact of ocean microbiology on SSA composition and cloud‐nucleating ability.
The WACS II working area includes the phytoplankton bloom region of the North Atlantic and south through the chlorophyll gradient into the oligotrophic waters of the Sargasso Sea. Measurements will be made at a series of stations across the high to low chlorophyll gradient and during transits between stations. Sea days will be divided into approximately 12 days on station and 7 days of transit.
The outcome of this project contributes to the SOLAS Mid-Term Strategy on Ocean-derived aerosols: production, evolution and impacts.
Ocean Atmosphere Sea Ice Snowpack (OASIS)
The Ocean - Atmosphere - Sea Ice - Snowpack (OASIS) program was created in 2004 as an international multidisciplinary group focussed on studying chemical and physical exchange processes among the title reservoirs. The main themes of OASIS are the interrelationships between climate and tropospheric chemistry as well as surface/biosphere feedbacks in the Arctic. Sea ice is undergoing rapid change in the Arctic, transitioning from a perennial or mutli-year ice (MYI) pack to a thinner, seasonal first-year ice (FYI) pack, thereby transforming into a more Antarctic -like system. Such changes in critical snow, ice. and atmospheric interfaces will likely have large impacts system wide - from habitat loss to dramatic changes in heat and water vapor fluxes to changes in atmospheric chemistry. OASIS scientists are deeply involved in studies aimed at understanding interactions among components of the Ocean - Atmosphere - Sea Ice - Snowpack system and potential feedbacks at their most fundamental levels.
A more detailed description of OASIS and future needs for Polar research can be found in:
Shepson, P.B., Ariya, P.B., Deal, C., Donaldson, D.J., Douglas, T.A., Maksym, T., Matrai, P.A., Russell, L.M., Saenz, B., Stefels, J., and Steiner, N. (2012) OASIS: Brining Scientists together from multiple disciplines to study changes and feedbacks in the polar environments. Eos, Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 93( 11), 117-124.
The outcome of this project contributes to the SOLAS Mid-Term Strategy on Sea-ice biogeochemistry and interactions with the atmosphere
Aerosol deposition and ocean plankton dynamics (ADEPT)
Ended in 2014
ADEPT addresses the study of the effect of atmospheric aerosol deposition on the dynamics of a marine LNLC (low nutrient low chlorophyll) system, namely the Mediterranean. To achieve its goal, ADEPT uses a multiscale and complementary approach. Relationships between atmospheric deposition and ocean nutrient and plankton dynamics are studied at a coastal scale and at the Mediterranean basin scale. Laboratory experiments focus to understand some of the underlying mechanisms.
ADEPT is a scientific project (CTM2011-23458) funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation)
The outcome of this project contributes to the SOLAS Mid-Term Strategy on Ocean-derived aerosols: production, evolution and impacts
Changes in carbon uptake and emissions by oceans in a changing climate (CARBOCHANGE)
Ended in 2015
The overall goal is to determine the ocean’s quantitative role for uptake of human-produced carbon dioxide, and to investigate how large this uptake rate has been in the past, how it is changing at present, and how it will evolve in the future.This is essential knowledge to assess the expected consequences of rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations and to guide the management of CO2 emission reductions.
Surface ocean aerosol production (SOAP)
The frontal regions around New Zealand are highly productive, with the Sub-Tropical Front that runs eastwards along the Chatham Rise characterised by intensive phytoplankton blooms. A preliminary survey of this region in February 2011 during a PreSOAP voyage encountered blooms of different phytoplankton groups with differing DMS & CO2 signatures.
An international team will further determine the production of aerosol precursors by phytoplankton blooms, their subsequent emissions to the atmosphere, and the production and size distribution of aerosols in the overlying marine boundary layer (MBL) during the SOAP voyage in 2012. Initial mapping of phytoplankton blooms around the productive Sub-Tropical Front along the Chatham Rise will be followed by selection of sites for focussed studies.
Annual Report of 2014
The outcome of this project contributes to the SOLAS Mid-Term Strategy on Ocean-derived aerosols: production, evolution and impacts
Mediterranean Sea acidification (MedSeA)
Ended in 2014
Increases in atmospheric C02 and associated decreases in seawater pH and carbonate ion concentration this century and beyond are likely to have wide impacts on marine ecosystems including those of the Mediterranean sea. Consequences of this process, ocean acidification, threaten the health of the Mediterranean, adding to the anthropogenic pressures, including those from climate change. Yet in comparison to other areas of the world ocean, there has been no concerted effort to study Mediterranean acidification, which is fundamental to the social and economic conditions of more than 400 million people living in Mediterranean countries and another 175 million who visit the region each year. The MedSeA project addresses ecologic and economic impacts from the combined influences of anthropogenic acidification and warming, while accounting for the unique characteristics of this key region. The project was granted a 6 months extension and will now be ending in July 2014.
Carbon cycling in China Seas - budget, controls and ocean acidification (CHOICE-C)
Ended in 2013
CHOICE-C focuses on the carbon budget, controls, ecological responses and future changes in coastal ocean systems. The focal area includes, but is not limited to, the continental shelves of both the South and East China Seas.
Flux atmosphérique d'origine continentale sur l'Océan Austral (FLATOCOA)
The goal is to know the amount of continental atmospheric dust deposited on the South Ocean, including determination of the bioavailable fraction. Special attention is given on Fe and other micro-nutrients, including Zn, Cd, Mn, P, Si and Co. The atmospheric total deposition flux and the atmospheric dust concentration will be measured during 2 years at Kerguelen with an integration time of two weeks. Solubility experiments will be done on collected dust to get informations on bioavailability of micro-nutrients. A transportation/deposition model will be used to extrapolate at a largestscale possible. In addition, another station will run for 1 year (2010) at Crozet island to assess gradient informations on a 1000 km scale.
European project on ocean acidification (EPOCA)
Ended in 2012
The EU FP7 Project EPOCA was launched in May 2008 with the overall goal to advance our understanding of the biological, ecological, biogeochemical, and societal implications of ocean acidification.
EPOCA 2011 Annual report
Dust experiment in a low nutrient, low chlorophyll ecosystem (DUNE)
Ended in 2011
The main goal of DUNE, a dust experiment in a low-nutrient, low-chlorophyll ecosystem, is to estimate the impact of atmospheric inputs on an oligotrophic ecosystem subjected to strong atmospheric inputs.
DUNE 2011 Annual report
Marine carbon source and sink assessment (CARBOOCEAN)
Ended in 2009
The project aimed for an accurate scientific assessment of the marine carbon sources and sinks within space and time. It focused on the Atlantic and Southern Oceans and a time interval of -200 to +200 years from now.
Precursors to particles 2006
Ended in 2008
This campaign used the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station as the major measurement platform to build on measurements already made as part of the Cape Grim Program.The Cape Grim Station is one of 23 Global Atmosphere Watch Stations and has been in continuous operation for over 30 years. Results from this project have been published as a special issue of Environmental Chemistry (Vol. 4(3), 2007).
- last update May 2018 -