Principal Investigator: Melissa Omand
Funding Agency: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)
Project Summary: The ocean plays a critical role in the transport and sequestration of our planet’s carbon. Carbon dioxide that is absorbed at the sea surface may be directly subducted or fixed into organic form and transported to depth via the biological carbon pump (BCP). To advance understanding of the ocean’s role in the carbon cycle, new technologies are needed to quantify carbon fluxes and measure their variability with horizontal distance, time/season, and depth. Our lab has developed a water-following (Lagrangian) float called MINION that will enable widely distributed observations of the BCP throughout the twilight zone (beneath the sun-lit surface layer). The miniature, low-cost MINION is equipped with pressure, temperature, and oxygen sensors, data telemetry as well as time-lapse imaging of sinking particles. Achieving widely distributed and high-density observations will advance understanding of carbon flux variability, particle identity, subsurface dispersion, and the fate of carbon once it enters the twilight zone of the ocean.