OCB Science Highlights

OCB Science Highlights

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Is it a shift of the surface ecosystem toward small cells in the eastern North Pacific subtropical gyre?

August 26, 2022

The eastern North Pacific subtropical gyre (NPSG) ecosystem contains a large proportion of the ocean surface, resulting in a significant impact on the global ocean primary production and export production. The NPSG is influenced by the interannual climate variabilities of the Pacific decadal oscillation and North Pacific gyre oscillation (NPGO). In particular, a recent report […]

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How does the competition between phytoplankton and bacteria for iron alter ocean biogeochemical cycles?

August 26, 2022

Free-living bacteria play a key role in cycling essential biogeochemical resources in the ocean, including iron, via their uptake, transformation, and release of organic matter throughout the water column. Bacteria process half of the ocean’s primary production, remineralize dissolved organic matter, and re-direct otherwise lost organic matter to higher trophic levels. For these reasons, it […]

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Carbon fluxes in the coastal ocean: Synthesis, boundary processes and future trends

August 26, 2022

A vital part of mitigating climate change is the coastal and open ocean carbon sink, without this, it is not possible to meet the target set by the Paris Agreement. More research is needed to better understand the ocean carbon cycle and its future role in the uptake of anthropogenic carbon. A review provides an […]

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The most important 234Th disequilibrium compilation you ever saw

August 25, 2022

Thorium-234 (234Th), a naturally radioactive element present in nature, is one of the most actively used tracers in oceanography. 234Th is widely used to study the removal rate of material on sinking particles from the upper ocean, known as “scavenging,” and for determining the downward flux of carbon. Starting in 1969, ocean measurements of the […]

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Chemical thermodynamic models of artificial seawater and the Tris buffers used to define the ‘total’ pH scale

August 25, 2022

The total pH scale used by oceanographers (for salinities 20 – 40, and temperatures 0 to 45°C) is calibrated from a combination of electromotive force measurements of artificial seawaters containing either added HCl of various molalities, or equimolal Tris and its protonated form TrisH+. In both cases, the added H+ or TrisH+ is substituted for […]

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A new ocean state after a nuclear war

August 25, 2022

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine brings the threat of nuclear warfare to the forefront. But how would modern nuclear detonations impact the world today? If used accidentally or intentionally, nuclear arsenals would endanger all life on Earth. A new study published in AGU Advances provides stark information on the global impact of nuclear war in a global earth system […]

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Powerful new tools for working with Argo data

June 9, 2022

No single program has been as transformative for ocean science over the past two decades as Argo: the fleet of robotic instruments that collect measurements of temperature and salinity in the upper 2 km of the ocean around the globe. The Argo program has been instrumental in revealing changes to ocean heat content, global sea […]

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What can algae tell us about translating laboratory science to nature?

June 9, 2022

Ocean acidification research has grown over the past few decades. Much of recent research documents negative impacts of changing carbonate chemistry on calcifying marine organisms in laboratory experiments. At the 2018 Ocean Acidification PI Meeting, a group of us asked “Can these laboratory responses to ocean acidification be scaled up to accurately predict the responses […]

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What drives decadal changes in the Chesapeake Bay carbonate system?

May 3, 2022

Understanding decadal changes in the coastal carbonate system (CO2-system) is essential for predicting how the health of these waters is affected by anthropogenic drivers, such as changing atmospheric conditions and terrestrial inputs. However, studies that quantify the relative impacts of these drivers are lacking. A recent study in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans identified the […]

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Unmixing deep sea sedimentary records identifies sensitivity of marine calcifying zooplankton to abrupt warming and ocean acidification in the past

May 3, 2022

Ocean acidification and rising temperatures have led to concerns about how calcifying organisms foundational to marine ecosystems, will be affected in the near future. We often look to analogous abrupt climate change events in Earth’s geologic past to inform our predictions of these future communities. The Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) is an apt analog for […]

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