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.

Feedbacks mitigate the impacts of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in the western North Atlantic

April12,2018

How do phytoplankton respond to atmospheric nitrogen deposition in the western North Atlantic, an area downwind of large agricultural and industrial centers? The biogeochemical impacts of this ‘fertilization’ remain unclear, as direct oceanic observations of atmospheric deposition are limited and models often cannot resolve the important processes. In a recent study, St-Laurent et al. (2017) […]

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Volcanic carbon dioxide drove ancient global warming event

March29,2018

A study recently published in Nature suggests that an extreme global warming event 56 million years ago known as the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was driven by massive CO2 emissions from volcanoes during the formation of the North Atlantic Ocean. Using a combination of new geochemical measurements and novel global climate modelling, the study revealed […]

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Widespread nutrient co-limitation discovered in the South Atlantic

March15,2018

Unicellular photosynthetic microbes—phytoplankton—are responsible for virtually all oceanic primary production, which fuels marine food webs and plays a fundamental role in the global carbon cycle. Experiments to date have suggested that the growth of phytoplankton across much of the ocean is limited by either nitrogen or iron. But simultaneously low concentrations of these and other […]

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Seagrass carbon dynamics: Gulf of Mexico

March1,2018

Seagrasses have died-off in great numbers, resulting in the release of stored carbon. Seagrasses represent a substantive and relatively unconstrained North American and Caribbean Sea blue carbon sink in the tropical Western Hemisphere. Fine-scale estimates of regional seagrass carbon stocks, as well as carbon fluxes from anthropogenic disturbances and natural processes and gains in sedimentary […]

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Increased temperatures suggest reduced capacity for carbon

January18,2018

The ocean’s biological pump works to draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) by exporting carbon from the surface ocean. This process is less efficient at higher temperatures, implying a possible climate feedback. Recent work by Cael et al. provides an explanation of why this feedback occurs and an estimate of its severity. In a highly […]

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Lasers shed light on giant larvacean filtration impact on the ocean’s biological pump

January4,2018

To accurately assess the impacts of climate change, we need to understand how atmospheric carbon is transported from surface waters to the deep sea. Grazers and filter feeders drive the ocean’s biological pump as they remove and sequester carbon at various rates. This pump extends down into the midwater realm, the largest habitat on earth. […]

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Zooplankton play a key and diverse role in the ocean carbon cycle

December7,2017

How does the enormous diversity of zooplankton species, life cycles, size, feeding ecology, and physiology affect their role in ocean food webs and cycling of carbon? In the 2017 issue of Annual Review of Marine Science, Steinberg and Landry review the fundamental and multifaceted roles that zooplankton play in the cycling and export of carbon […]

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The sea surface microlayer in a future ocean

November28,2017

The sea surface microlayer (SML) is the boundary interface between the atmosphere and ocean, spanning the uppermost ~1 mm of the ocean. Covering 70% of the Earth’s surface, the SML supports a rich diversity of life, serving as an incubator for eggs and larvae. The SML controls air-sea interactions  and serves as an important hotspot […]

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WBC Series: Observing air-sea interaction in the western boundary currents and their extension regions: Considerations for OceanObs 2019

November10,2017

Dongxiao Zhang1,2, Meghan F. Cronin2, Xiaopei Lin3, Ryuichiro Inoue4, Andrea J. Fassbender5, Stuart P. Bishop6, Adrienne Sutton2 1. University of Washington 2. NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory 3. Ocean University of China, China 4. Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Japan 5. Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute 6. North Carolina State University   Western […]

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WBC Series: The role of western boundary current regions in the global carbon cycle

November10,2017

Alison R. Gray1, Jaime Palter2 1. University of Washington 2. University of Rhode Island Estimates of contemporary global air-sea carbon dioxide (CO2) flux (Takahashi et al. 2009; Landschützer et al. 2014) suggest that subtropical western boundary currents (WBCs) and their zonal extensions are key regions of oceanic carbon uptake (Figure 1a). These narrow, intensified currents, which […]

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