Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science (EOAS)
Florida State University

"Inter-disciplinary investigations of the biological pump and the role of marine microbes in carbon sequestration"

January 16, 2019, 3:30 p.m., 499 DSL,

Abstract:

The biological pump refers to a suite of processes that combine to transport carbon dioxide from the joint atmosphere-surface ocean system into the deep ocean where it can be sequestered for periods ranging from decades to millennia. The biological pump depends on complex interactions between diverse plankton groups and their environment including primary productivity, grazing and fecal pellet production, bacterial remineralization, aggregate formation, diel vertical migration, and subduction. My research utilizes observational and modeling approaches from biological, chemical, and physical oceanography to quantify multiple pathways of carbon transport and their variability in the world ocean. In this talk I will focus on the relative importance of carbon transport by sinking particles, subducted organic matter, and active transport by vertically migrating organisms as assessed using Lagrangian particle models and inverse foodweb models.