Award Abstract # 1947829
Collaborative Research: Gases in the Overturning and Horizontal circulation of the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (GOHSNAP)

NSF Org: OCE
Division Of Ocean Sciences
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
Initial Amendment Date: February 7, 2020
Latest Amendment Date: January 8, 2024
Award Number: 1947829
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Henrietta Edmonds
hedmonds@nsf.gov
 (703)292-7427
OCE
 Division Of Ocean Sciences
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: February 15, 2020
End Date: January 31, 2026 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $955,811.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $1,062,774.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2020 = $955,811.00
FY 2024 = $106,963.00
History of Investigator:
  • Jaime Palter (Principal Investigator)
    jpalter@uri.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Rhode Island
75 LOWER COLLEGE RD RM 103
KINGSTON
RI  US  02881-1974
(401)874-2635
Sponsor Congressional District: 02
Primary Place of Performance: University of Rhode Island
70 LOWER COLLEGE
Kingston
RI  US  02881-1967
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
02
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): CJDNG9D14MW7
Parent UEI: NSA8T7PLC9K3
NSF Program(s): Chemical Oceanography,
PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
Primary Program Source: 01002425DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 9150, 1670, 1324, 1610, 4444, 1389
Program Element Code(s): 167000, 161000
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

Every winter, frigid winds blowing eastward from the North American continent cool the surface waters of the Labrador Sea, which is situated between Canada and Greenland. As the ocean cools, oxygen and carbon dioxide are mixed from the atmosphere into a thick layer of water that ultimately spreads southward to fill a large volume of the North Atlantic and beyond. The presence of this water mass prevents the North Atlantic anywhere from becoming completely devoid of oxygen. Vertical mixing in the Labrador Sea also redistributes carbon dioxide into the deep ocean, where it can remain for hundreds of years, preventing it from contributing to the greenhouse effect. Yet, the processes governing the uptake of gases by the ocean are not well understood or quantified. Given that, over the last century, the ocean has become steadily more depleted in oxygen while also absorbing a large fraction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide, observing gas exchange processes is essential for understanding and predicting the evolution of the ocean and climate system. The circulation of the Labrador Sea has been monitored since 2014 with an array of instrumented cables extending from the seafloor to nearly the ocean surface. This project adds gas sensors to this array to investigate the rates and processes governing gas exchange. Through this project, a student and postdoc will be trained in interdisciplinary oceanography with a rich network of international collaborators. Responding to the need to increase public ocean literacy, the project scientists will work with University of Rhode Island?s Inner Space Center to broadcast live, interactive science sessions to educators at partner high schools and will follow-up with in-person science cafés at three participating schools.

Given the unique role of the Labrador Sea in providing a pathway for oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) to enter the intermediate depths of the ocean, a quantification and mechanistic understanding of the gas uptake and transport in the basin is a leading scientific priority. Oxygenation of Labrador Sea water prevents large-scale hypoxia from developing anywhere in the Atlantic Ocean and anthropogenic CO2 storage in the basin is the highest in the global ocean. The assumption that, in the Atlantic Ocean, O2 and CO2 uptake and their variability are tied to the dynamics of heat loss and the overturning circulation pervades the literature but has never been evaluated on the basis of direct observations. Thus, GOHSNAP (Gases in the Overturning and Horizontal circulation of the Subpolar North Atlantic Program) addresses this gap and the urgent need to better understand interactions between gas uptake, transport, and the overturning circulation. Specifically, this program will provide a continuous 2-year record of the trans-basin, full water column transport of O2 across the southern boundary of the Labrador Sea, leveraging the mooring infrastructure of the US-lead, international Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP). The addition of O2 sensors at various depths on this array, supplemented by observations collected by autonomous platforms will allow for the quantification of O2 export from the Labrador Sea. The data will further be used to empirically model carbon concentrations and estimate carbon export. Proposed instruments will also measure the mixed layer O2 and pCO2 for two winters, from which air-sea gas exchange will be calculated and compared against analogous observations in the convective interior of the Labrador Sea.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Atamanchuk, Dariia and Palter, Jaime and Palevsky, Hilary and Le Bras, Isabela and Koelling, Jannes and Nicholson, David "Linking Oxygen and Carbon Uptake with the Meridional Overturning Circulation Using a Transport Mooring Array" Oceanography , v.34 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2021.supplement.02-03 Citation Details
Miller, Una Kim and Fogaren, Kristen E and Atamanchuk, Dariia and Johnson, Clare and Koelling, Jannes and Le_Bras, Isabela and Lindeman, Margaret and Nagao, Hiroki and Nicholson, David P and Palevsky, Hilary and Park, Ellen and Yoder, Meg and Palter, Jaim "Oxygen optodes on oceanographic moorings: recommendations for deployment and in situ calibration" Frontiers in Marine Science , v.11 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2024.1441976 Citation Details

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