NWA BCP Theme II

Determining mechanistic controls on productivity and the BCP in the NWA

Left: Photograph of a CTD (conductivity-temperature-depth sensor) and rosette of Niskin bottles on the deck of a research vessel at sea. Image credit: Montserrat (Muntsa) Roca Martí, postdoctoral fellow at Dalhousie University. Right: Carolina Cisternas-Novoa (postdoctoral fellow at MUN) working with samples in the multicultivator. Image credit: Dr. Uta Passow (MUN).

Summary

Theme II will use a combination of laboratory and oceanic field measurements to characterize the community composition of plankton in the NWA, the budgets of nutrients available to these plankton, and the present-day state of BCP variables and fluxes. Data generated from our field expeditions will be used to calibrate sensors on the newly deployed BGC Argo floats. Our new understanding of the BCP will be used to inform next-generation biogeochemical models for the Northwest Atlantic.

Inter-connections with other themes:

  • The data from the process-based field studies will help calibrate measurements taken by the BCG Argo floats (Theme I) and will serve as baseline data for developing biogeochemical models and future projections of the BCP in the Northwest Atlantic and Labrador Sea (Theme III)
  • The results of the models will be used in support of scientifically informed policy frameworks described in Theme IV

Spring 2022 research cruise to the Labrador Sea on the Celtic Explorer