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Content archived on 2022-12-23

Methane Budget for the oxic/anoxic water column of the Black Sea: data synthesis, parameterisation of biochemical transformations, numerical simulation

Objective

The subject of this proposal is a problem oriented research project aiming to elucidate methane budget for the Black Sea and investigate processes of the production and consumption of methane in this oxic/anoxic basin. The studies will be concerned with the evaluation of methane transformation rates, fluxes of methane in and out of the Black Sea waters and assessment of physical controls on the cycling of methane within the water column. It is anticipated that the proposed methodology and results of this project will help to better understand methane cycling in other oxic/anoxic environments and to predict possible changes.

The specific objectives of the work are:
- To assess general and regional peculiarities of methane distribution in the Black Sea, its geological and microbiological sources;
- to further develop a model of vertical exchange in the Black Sea focusing on its application for the description of methane cycling by
(i) incorporating exchange processes at the upper boundary of the bottom homogeneous layer;
(ii) adding a non-stationary component to the background physical model;
- to evaluate the budget of methane (production, consumption rates and fluxes) for the water column;
- to parameterize bacterial production and consumption of methane under oxic and anoxic conditions;
- to numerically simulate cycling of methane in the oxic/anoxic water column of the Black Sea, its evolution in response to climate change and anthropogenic or natural eutrophication of the basin.

These objectives are scheduled in the list of tasks as follows:

Task 1 (Synthesis of existing data) is aimed to summarize data on methane distribution, microbiological production and oxidation in the water column;
Task 2 (Estimation of the boundary conditions) is aimed
(i) to quantify spatial variations in the flux of methane of geological and biogenic origin from sediments to the water column;
(ii) to draw up a general basin-average vertical distribution of methane flux from the bottom and to distinguish depth ranges where sediments are a source of methane for the water column;
(iii) to estimate the flux of methane at the upper boundary of the modelled water column;
Task 3 (Parameterisation of biogeochemical processes controlling the budget of methane in the water column) is aimed
(i) to parameterise processes of microbiological production of methane in the water column;
(ii) to parameterise processes of methane oxidation in oxic, suboxic and anoxic conditions of the Black Sea;
Task 4 (Development of the background physical model) is aimed
(i) to further develop the model of vertical exchange in the Black Sea (11) aiming to incorporate exchange processes within and at the upper boundary of BHL;
(ii) to make the background physical model non-stationary, and to investigate sensitivity of the solution to density stratification in plume water;
(iii) to further develop the biogeochemical module of the model by incorporating methane as an additional solute that takes part in the cycling of carbon;
Task 5 (Diagnostic modelling) is aimed to reproduce as a steady state solution the observed distribution of methane in the Black Sea and to estimate the equilibrium budget of methane for the water column;
Task 6 (Prognostic modelling) is aimed to numerically simulate non-stationary scenarios of methane cycling of in the oxic/anoxic conditions of the Black Sea.

Call for proposal

Data not available

Funding Scheme

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Coordinator

Limnological Research Center
EU contribution
No data
Address
Seestrasse
6047 Kastanienbaum
Switzerland

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Total cost
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Participants (5)