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Matt Resteck and Ken Buesseler deploying a sediment trap.

Matt Resteck and Ken Buesseler deploying a sediment trap.
Matt Resteck and Ken Buesseler deploying a sediment trap.
Matt Resteck and Ken Buesseler deploying a sediment trap.
Matt Resteck and Ken Buesseler deploying a sediment trap.
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460699
Santoro, Alyssa
Matt Resteck and Ken Buesseler deploying a sediment trap.
Still Image
08/15/2018
Santoro_Ken_Matt deploying STT.jpeg
Caption from Oceanus magazine, Vol. 55, No. 2, Pg. 6:
The ocean’s ‘biological pump’ captures more carbon than expected.
Every year the ocean erupts in a bloom of phytoplankton that plays a major role in capturing carbon from the atmosphere. The organisms consume carbon dioxide and emit oxygen through the process of photosynthesis. When the phytoplankton die, their carbon-rich bodies sink down in the ocean, where they are eaten or buried. A study by WHOI geochemist Ken Buesseler and a group of international researchers demonstrated that this carbon capture process takes place over a much greater area than previously believed, as the depth where photosynthesis occurs varies greatly throughout the ocean. The team used sensors detecting the presence of phytoplankton to measure the depth of the sunlit zone. With this method, the authors calculated that nearly twice as much carbon sinks into the ocean each year than previously estimated.
Caption from WHOI News Release, 04/06/2020:
Marine chemist Ken Buesseler (right) deploys a sediment trap from the research vessel Roger Revelle during a 2018 expedition in the Gulf of Alaska. Buesseler's research focuses on how carbon moves through the ocean. Buesseler and co-authors of a new study found that the ocean's biological carbon pump may be twice as efficient as previously estimated, with implications for future climate assessments.
Image Of the Day caption:
Marine chemist Ken Buesseler (right) deployed a sediment trap from the research vessel Roger Revelle in the fall of 2018 during the EXPORTS expedition in the Gulf of Alaska. EXPORTS (Export Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing) is a NASA-funded program to provide insight into the role of the upper ocean in Earth's carbon cycle and climate system using both satellite and ship-based observations and data-gathering. In addition to being a member of the EXPORTS science team, Buesseler is also a part of WHOI's Ocean Twilight Zone initiative, which aims to explore the little-known part of the ocean from 200 to 1,000 meters.
Photo by Alyssa Santoro
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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