ReBELS (Resolving Biological carbon Export in the Labrador Sea), a project funded by the UK Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), is a New Investigator Standard Grant awarded to NOC (and BAS as partner). It aims to understand and quantify the transport of oceanic organic carbon into the deep sea and its effect on ocean carbon storage.

ReBELS project has at its heart the close collaboration of a team of physical and biogeochemical oceanographers with expertise in:

  1. the biological carbon pump
  2. ocean dynamics and circulation
  3. the application of state-of-the-art autonomous platforms

Recent advances in autonomous platforms, combined with novel data analysis techniques, will enable ReBELS to quantify the different elements of the biological carbon pump throughout an annual cycle in the northwest North Atlantic. We will set up a year-long ocean observatory in the Labrador Sea using state-of-the-art autonomous observing technologies (gliders and biogeochemical ARGO floats) paired with traditional measurements of carbon flux (moored sediment trap) to understand the different contribution of particle injection pumps to the overall carbon export in the Labrador Sea. ReBELS will quantify the key processes that must be adequately represented in climate models in order to predict North Atlantic carbon drawdown with confidence. Gliders will not be deployed on this first expedition.

PI: Dr Filipa Carvalho and Dr Sarah Giering
Email: filipa.carvalho at noc.ac.uk

Co-investigators: Dr Louis Clément, Dr Nathan Briggs, Dr Elisa Lovecchio, Hans Hilder, Flavien Petit

Dates
–
Funding

NERC – Discovery Science

Aim

The biological carbon pump stores large quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the deep ocean (5.15Gt per year) via the flux of organic matter, without which atmospheric CO2 would be 200–400ppm higher than it is today. Until recently, this storage was thought to occur principally through the sinking of organic matter – the ‘gravitational pump’ – but new evidence has brought to light additional physical-biological particle injection pumps which may resolve the imbalance found in ocean carbon and nutrient budgets.

We propose an ambitious, targeted field experiment in a key region of carbon storage in the North Atlantic, the Labrador Sea, to address four main objectives:

  1. quantify particle dynamics in the Labrador Sea over the course of a year. 
  2. determine gross and net carbon production in order to quantify export efficiency. 
  3. seasonally resolve POC fluxes via gravitational, eddy subduction and mixed layer pumps at high temporal resolution
  4. determine the relative importance of the pumps throughout the year.
Gliders (Seaglider, Slocum glider)
Ship systems