The Global Distribution of Inorganic Carbon in the Ocean. We will also evaluate the physical and biological controls on TCO 2 and alkalinity in different ocean regions. This understanding will be incorporated into global oceanic computer models at Princeton University that will be used to quantify the oceanic carbon sink and provide better predictions of future climate change. The oceans are important sinks for greenhouse gases and heat, yet high resolution measurements of chemical and bio-optical properties relevant to global climate change studies are being made only sporadically in the ocean at present. Tommy D. Dickey, Univ.
Organic carbon has an important role in carbon cycling in the ocean.
Breakdown of DOC by bacteria subsequently makes the CO 2 available again to be exchanged to the atmosphere. The specific processes we will be studying in this project include, the export of carbon from the surface layer as particulate carbon and calcium carbonate, the production and accumulation of organic carbon in the surface layer, and the air-sea exchange of CO 2 . The ultimate objectives of the work are to improve our knowledge about carbon fluxes and partitioning for regional and global ocean modelling studies. We have conducted successful mineralization experiments in the Sargasso Sea, Arabian Sea and Ross Sea providing information about bacterial growth efficiencies and carbon flow through the microbial food web. The objectives of this research is to understand the effect of coral calcification and photosynthesis on seawater pCO 2 and the air-sea exchange of CO 2 .