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.

Contrasting N2O fluxes of source vs. sink in western Arctic Ocean during summer 2017

October 20, 2021

During the western Arctic summer season both physical and biogeochemical features differ with latitude between the Bering Strait and Chukchi Borderland. The southern region (Bering Strait to the Chukchi Shelf) is relatively warm, saline, and eutrophic, due to the intrusion of Pacific waters that bring heat and nutrients in to the western Arctic Ocean (WAO). […]

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The ephemeral and elusive COVID blip in ocean carbon

September 20, 2021

The global pandemic of the last nearly two years has affected all of us on a daily and long-term basis. Our planet is not exempt from these impacts. Can we see a signal of COVID-related CO2 emissions reductions in the ocean? In a recent study, Lovenduski et al. apply detection and attribution analysis to output […]

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Bacterial fingerprints as a tool for large-scale functional ecology

September 20, 2021

Unravelling the relationship between biological diversity and ecosystem functions is a timeless question which dates back to the expeditions of Alexander von Humboldt in the early 1800′. At the base of the marine foodweb, marine prokaryotes are essential for ecosystem functioning. Measuring their biogeography and functional traits therefore merits investigation as alterations in their alpha […]

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pH: the secrets that you keep

September 20, 2021

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines ocean acidification as “a reduction in pH of the ocean over an extended period, typically decades or longer, caused primarily by the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere” (Rhein et al., 2013, p. 295). Does this mean that a greater change in pH at the ocean surface relative […]

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Exploiting phytoplankton as a biosensor for nutrient limitation

September 15, 2021

In the surface ocean, phytoplankton growth is often limited by a scarcity of key nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron. While this is important, there are methodological and conceptual difficulties in characterizing these nutrient limitations. A recent paper published in Science Magazine leveraged a global metagenomic dataset from Bio-GO-SHIP to address these challenges. The […]

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How atmospheric and oceanographic forcing impact the carbon sequestration in an ultra-oligotrophic marine system

August 11, 2021

Sinking particles are a critical conduit for the export of material from the surface to the deep ocean. Despite their importance in oceanic carbon cycling, little is known about the composition and seasonal variability of sinking particles which reach abyssal depths. Oligotrophic waters cover ~75% of the ocean surface and contribute over 30% of the […]

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A new proxy for ocean iron bioavailability

July 26, 2021

In many oceanic regions, iron exerts strong control on phytoplankton growth, ecosystem structure and carbon cycling. Yet, iron bioavailability and uptake rates by phytoplankton in the ocean are poorly constrained. Recently, Shaked et al. (2020) (see GEOTRACES highlight), established a new approach for quantifying the availability of dissolved Fe (dFe) in natural seawater based on […]

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Using BGC-Argo to obtain depth-resolved net primary production

July 23, 2021

Net primary production (NPP)—the organic carbon produced by the phytoplankton minus the organic carbon respired by phytoplankton themselves—serves as a major energy source of the marine ecosystem. Traditional methods for measuring NPP rely on ship-based discrete sampling and bottle incubations (e.g., 14C incubation), which introduce potential artifacts and limit the spatial and temporal data coverage […]

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Will temperate kelp forests persist?

July 12, 2021

Giant kelp is a highly productive foundation species that forms dense forests on temperate reefs around the world. These ecosystems have remarkably high rates of carbon fixation—giant kelp can grow half a meter a day—and the physical structure formed by kelp’s tall fronds profoundly alters the benthic habitat. However, giant kelp is regularly ripped out […]

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Hydrogeology modulates carbon outwelling from tidal wetlands

July 12, 2021

Tidal wetlands are highly productive ecosystems that have the potential to sequester and bury vast quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide, making them effective blue carbon habitats. There is emerging evidence that lateral export of dissolved carbon (outwelling) can greatly exceed carbon burial in blue carbon habitats. However, little is known about the spatial and temporal […]

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