Tag: Ocean Chemistry

A Collaborative Effort Investigates the Biological Carbon Pump, Deploying Sediment Traps Hundreds of Meters Below

A team of scientists from AOML, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the University of South Carolina retrieve a sediment trap from the Gulf of Mexico, spending months processing and examining the flurry of microscopic shells and environmental DNA (eDNA) of biological debris collected by the trap, known as “marine snow.” This collaborative NOAA–USGS research project uses these sediment trap samples to investigate the biological carbon pump, the ocean’s role in removing atmospheric carbon, and climate change patterns.

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Failing Upwards: Developing an Autonomous Surface Vehicle to Advance ‘Omics Research 

For engineers and scientists, sometimes failure means progress. When developing a new technology, the process is to field test, fail, tweak, and test again, each time failing a little less and learning what does and does not work until – finally – they get it right. On August 5, 2023, scientists from NOAA’s Great Lakes […]

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Landmark study analyzes global ocean carbon storage over two decades, indicates weakening of ocean carbon sink

A landmark study published last week demonstrates that the ocean’s role as a carbon sink and its ability to store anthropogenic, or human-caused, carbon may be weakening. A collaboration among international researchers led by Jens Daniel Müller, Ph.D. (ETH Zurich), this study captures a snapshot of three decades of global interior ocean measurements to determine […]

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Fifty-Five Days at Sea: Collecting Oceanographic Data from Brazil to Iceland

On May 9, a team of scientists aboard the NOAA Ship Ronald H. Brown arrived at their final destination in Reykjavik, Iceland following 55 days at sea. The team of 50 scientists and 28 crew members followed a track through the North Atlantic, from Brazil to Iceland, referred to as the A16N transect, and successfully completed 150 stations, collecting over 3,000 samples from the Atlantic’s surface to the seafloor, giving scientists a holistic snapshot of the Atlantic Ocean basin.

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NOAA Scientists Publish a New River Chemistry and Discharge Dataset for U.S. Rivers

A new river chemistry and discharge dataset for U.S. coasts has been released. A recent publication by scientists at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), Northern Gulf Institute (NGI), and NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) provides a river chemistry and discharge dataset for 140 U.S. rivers along the West, East, and Gulf of Mexico coasts, based on historical records from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This dataset will be very useful for regional ocean biogeochemical modeling and carbon chemistry studies. 

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New study establishes monitoring framework for evaluating reef persistence under climate change and ocean acidification

Coral scientists at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and University of Miami Cooperative Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Science (CIMAS) developed a new modeling approach, for evaluating coral reef persistence under climate change scenarios. Aiming to improve coral restoration efforts, this new user-friendly framework has been created as a helpful tool for coral reef scientists and managers to address the increasing vulnerability of these vital ecosystems.

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River Runoff Creates a Buffer Zone for Ocean Acidification in the Gulf of Mexico

A new study by scientists at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and Northern Gulf Institute (NGI) has revealed the alkalinity of river runoff to be a crucial factor for slowing the pace of ocean acidification along the Gulf of Mexico’s northern coast. This valuable, first-time finding may be indicative of ocean carbon chemistry patterns for other U.S. coastal areas significantly connected to rivers.

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