FAPESP - Satellite estimates of marine net community production in the South Atlantic from Sentinel-3.

Atmospheric CO2 has risen from 280 micro-atmospheres during preindustrial times to 370 micro-atmospheres today. This is predicted to double over the next 100 years if anthropogenic emissions of CO2 continue at their current rate. The microscopic marine algae (the phytoplankton), are able to fix CO2 through photosynthesis and can therefore reduce atmospheric CO2 by drawing it down into the ocean. Photosynthesis involves a series of enzymatic controlled reactions that start with capturing light energy and finish with fixing CO2 to build phytoplankton cells. Some of the fixed carbon is lost
through respiration. Marine bacteria, the microscopic animals known as the zooplankton and phytoplankton themselves during the night time respire. The extent to which phytoplankton photosynthesize and fix carbon and the bacteria-zoophytoplankton (or marine plankton) community respires carbon controls whether CO2 is drawn down from the atmosphere to the ocean or is released to the atmosphere from the ocean. The overall objective of this proposal is to improve our understanding of how the marine plankton community in the South Atlantic and the coast of Brazil potentially regulate the atmospheric CO2 concentration. Phytoplankton carbon fixation can be monitored from space using satellite sensors. A new satellite sensor, that has the capability to do this, will be launched by the European Space Agency in autumn 2015. We will use data from this new satellite to study this phenomena in collaboration with a Brazilian Research Institute. The results will benefit both UK and Brazilian research on climate change.
The RCUK-FAPESP Lead Agency Agreement is being applied by the applicants

Who will benefit from this research?
The Atlantic Ocean is affected by climate change through changing circulation patterns and the variability and extent of water column mixing and stratification. These factors impact phytoplankton primary production and marine community respiration, which in turn affect the air-sea exchange of CO2 and the export and storage of carbon in the ocean. This proposal aims to initially deliver exploratory science between two research institutes who are recognized internationally as leaders in remote sensing and biogeochemistry and who will address these questions. The results will provide the foundation to build on a lasting impact that will enhance our understanding of the variability in sources and sinks of CO2 in the South Atlantic. This is of interest to government and non-governmental organizations and members of the public, internationally. This research will feed into the NERC mission on Managing Environmental Change through the use of new technology, the development of satellite products and the processing and synthesis of large data sets and to assess the role that phytoplankton play in mitigating climate change. This research will benefit the wider scientific community: Firstly the European Space Agency and the wider satellite oceanography community will benefit from the products that will be developed. The project will also benefit ecosystem
modelers working on prediction of marine biogeochemistry. The research has the potential to benefit projects such as Future Earth which aims to link studies on climate change with policy-makers so that rapid action can be implemented to mitigate the risks associated with a global rise in CO2. The project will also be of value to monitoring agencies involved in the monitoring and protection of marine ecosystems, and tasked with assessing the impact of climate change in maritime territories and the capacity for these regions to store CO2. The research will also be of benefit to the general public, who, through visits to aquaria, museums and public lectures and radio, television, newspaper and magazine articles have an interest in climate change and how it affects the marine environment.

How will they benefit from this research?
The project is of interest to government and non-governmental organizations and the general public as it will enhance our understanding of the role that play phytoplankton in mitigate climate change. These organizations will benefit from the proposed assessment of the South Atlantic Ocean and Brazilian coastal zone to absorb or release CO2. The academic impact of this research will be through collection of new data in a sparsely sampled region of the Atlantic Ocean and the development and validation of new satellite models. The Copernicus mission aims to will provide satellite data to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change. Since the proposed project addresses climate issues in the marine environment and will develop novel satellite products, the project is of direct relevance to the GMES mission. Monitoring agencies will also benefit from the satellite products that will be developed as they will enhance their capability of monitoring the carbon storage capacity of coastal and open ocean environments. The satellite images of net community production generated through this project will be invaluable to marine modelers to validate ecosystem models that predict future climate change scenarios. The images potentially also provide an ideal data grid for data assimilation for modelers involved in the dynamic response marine ecosystem structure to environmental variability. The research will impact society by providing evidence based research for policy on climate change. The project will aid IMBER's Memorandum of Understanding and will potentially feed into the IPCC.