Project description
Gaining insight into the ocean’s biological carbon pump
Did you know that microscopic marine plants help the ocean to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and store it away in the deep ocean for decades to even centuries? This storage process is called the ocean’s biological carbon pump. The EU-funded CarbOcean project intends to gain a better understanding of the workings of this pump by integrating new observations of carbon carried by microscopic particles in the ocean with biogeochemical modeling. To this end, researchers will develop an autonomous robotic ocean profiler to simultaneously observe fluxes of particulate organic carbon (POC) and particulate inorganic carbon (PIC), together with physico-chemical ocean parameters. Using data collected by such profilers in a wide variety of ocean environments, researchers will investigate POC and PIC production in the surface ocean and subsequent transfer through the dark ocean, and examine how these fluxes are interlinked. These unique observations will then be used to improve models of the biological carbon pump and gain better insights into the functioning of the pump.
Objective
The ocean’s biological carbon pump plays a crucial role in storing atmospheric carbon dioxide in the deep ocean, thereby isolating carbon from the atmosphere for decades to centuries. Yet, its capacity to do so is under-constrained and its mechanisms poorly understood. CarbOcean will develop a mechanistic and quantitative understanding of the biological carbon pump using a novel integrative approach that accounts for its two component pumps: (1) the organic carbon pump, which concerns the photosynthetic production of particulate organic carbon, POC, and (2) the carbonate pump, which concerns the production of particulate inorganic carbon, PIC. These pumps have opposite effects on the ocean-atmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide. I will nurture the development of a breakthrough autonomous robotic ocean profiler, uniquely capable of simultaneous observations of PIC and POC fluxes and physicochemical parameters from the well-lit surface ocean through the underlying twilight zone (roughly 100 – 1000 m depth) over a continuum of spatiotemporal scales. The robotic profilers will be deployed in a wide variety of oceanic environments and the collected data will allow investigation of links between the export and sequestration of POC and PIC, examination of pump interconnection, and detection of pump drivers. New parameterizations of carbon flux processes will be developed and implemented in a biogeochemical model. Lastly, the carbon flux data collected will be up-scaled to the global ocean using artificial intelligence approaches, thereby exploiting synergies among various observational platforms, including remote sensing.
CarbOcean is a strongly interdisciplinary project, connecting fundamental and applied optical oceanography with biogeochemistry, carbonate chemistry, advanced statistics, and technological development that will allow a quantum leap in understanding the ocean’s biological carbon pump.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry inorganic compounds
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences oceanography
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geochemistry biogeochemistry
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-STG - Starting Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2019-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
9000 GENT
Belgium
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.