OCB Science Highlights

OCB Science Highlights

If you would like to have your recent publications featured on the OCB website and eNewsletter please contact ocb_news@whoi.edu. View our guidelines for writing a OCB Science Highlight.

Gulf of Mexico: A blue carbon hotspot of mangroves, seagrass and marshes

February 20, 2019

The Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is an important global hotspot that comprises over 2.1615 million hectares of blue carbon habitats, including mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes, which collectively store 480.5 Tg of organic carbon (Corg) just in the upper 1 meter of sediment. Some of these important areas of carbon sequestration are protected or conserved, […]

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Rapid warming and salinity changes mask acidification in Gulf of Maine waters

February 20, 2019

Why don’t we see ocean acidification in over a decade of high-frequency observations in the Gulf of Maine? The answer lies in a recent decade of changes that raised sea surface temperature and salinity, and in turn dampened the expected acidification signal and caused the saturation states of calcite minerals to increase. From 2004 to […]

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Biological and physical controls on estuarine nitrous oxide emissions

February 5, 2019

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas with rising atmospheric concentrations. Atmospheric emissions of N2O are predicted to increase with continued anthropogenic perturbation of the nitrogen cycle, yet the magnitude of these emissions is uncertain, particularly in coastal systems where N2O fluxes are poorly constrained. How do N2O emissions from a eutrophic estuary vary […]

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Evidence against an Arctic Ocean methane bomb

February 5, 2019

Gas hydrates are an ice-like storehouse of the greenhouse gas methane found in continental margins of the world ocean. Warming waters can cause hydrates to decompose and release ancient methane to overlying sediment and waters. The continental shelves of the Arctic Ocean have been thought of as “ground zero” for the potential release of methane […]

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Dust-borne iron in the Southern Ocean was more bioavailable during glacial periods

January 23, 2019

The Southern Ocean is iron (Fe)-limited, and increased fluxes of dust-borne Fe to the Southern Ocean during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) have been associated with phytoplankton growth and CO2 drawdown. Dust contains different mixes of Fe-bearing minerals, depending on the source region. Fe(II) silicate minerals from physical weathering are more bioavailable than Fe(III) oxyhydroxide […]

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The past, present, and future of artificial ocean iron fertilization experiments

January 23, 2019

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, human activities have greatly increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations, leading to global warming and indicating an urgent need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The Martin (or iron) hypothesis suggests that ocean iron fertilization (OIF) could be a low-cost effective method for reducing atmospheric CO2 levels by stimulating carbon […]

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Constraints on glacial overturning circulation and export production lead to answers about the carbon cycle

January 4, 2019

One of the biggest unsolved mysteries in climate science concerns the dynamics and feedbacks of the ice age carbon dioxide (CO2) cycle. At the height of the Pleistocene ice ages, the atmospheric CO2 concentration was about 1/3 lower than during the warm interglacial periods. Most scientists think that the CO2 that was missing from the […]

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234Th-based estimates show contrasting patterns of carbon attenuation through oxygen minimum and deficient zones

December 20, 2018

Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) are thought to be regions of the global ocean where a greater percentage of the organic carbon associated with particles makes it to depth. Currently covering 8% of the world’s ocean area, these low oxygen regions are expected to expand as a result climate change. It is therefore vital to understand […]

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New BioGEOTRACES data sets: Connecting pieces of the microbial biogeochemical puzzle

December 19, 2018

Microorganisms play a central role in the transfer of matter and energy in the marine food web. Microbes depend on micronutrients (e.g. iron, cobalt, zinc, and a host of other trace metals) to catalyze key biogeochemical reactions, and their metabolisms, in turn, directly affect the cycling, speciation, and bioavailability of these compounds. One might therefore […]

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Alternative particle formation pathways identified in the Equatorial Pacific’s biological pump

November 27, 2018

The ocean is one of the largest sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) on our planet, driven in part by CO2 uptake by phytoplankton in the upper ocean during photosynthesis. Eventually, a portion of the resulting organic carbon is transported to depth, where it is sequestered from the atmosphere for centuries or even millennia. Our […]

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