Intellectual merit The coastal oceans are some of the most productive and biogeochemically active marine environments. Relative to open-ocean cycling, however, comparatively little is known about the overall role of these areas in the global carbon cycle (e.g. Liu et al. [2000]). One of the major challenges confronting research in the coastal environment is its very high spatio-temporal variability mainly as a result of meso- and submesoscale processes. The integral role of these processes for the coastal ocean carbon cycle and their impact on the net exchange of CO2 with the atmosphere are virtually unknown.
We propose to address this challenge by conducting an integrated and multi-disciplinary observational program in Santa Monica Bay, CA. In particular, we will address the following three goals: (i) quantify the upper ocean carbon budget of Santa Monica Bay over seasonal to annual timescales, (ii) determine the integral contribution of meso- and submesoscale processes to this budget and to the air-sea exchange of CO2, and (iii) quantify the relative roles of physical and biological processes in controlling the carbon balance within mesoscale features as well as over the entire testbed region.
We plan to address these goals with three research elements: (i) time-series observations from an interdisciplinary moored platform (see www.ioe.ucla.edu/mucla), (ii) bi-weekly shipboard based water sampling at the mooring site for shorebased analysis of water column carbon and biogeochemical properties, and (iii) process cruises scheduled on an event basis to study the temporal evolution of the 3-D structure of the carbon and physical fields associated with a mesoscale or sub-mesoscale phenomenon. Analyses of the results from these efforts will be greatly aided by the availability of very high-resolution ocean carbon cycle hindcast simulations of the area using the Regional Oceanic Modeling System (independently funded).
The proposal's unique contribution consists of the embedding of the process studies into the framework of a multidisciplinary time-series. The proposed work builds upon the strength and expertise of the PI and his team in the areas of modeling and data analyses, while continuing the expansion into the observational realm to address an urgent need for critical new carbon observations. We already have initiated work on all program elements and will be able to leverage this proposal upon a number of existing grants and synergistic activities of other investigators at UCLA and at partner institutions.
Broader impact By working toward the understanding of the net impact of meso- and sub- mesoscale processes on the upper ocean carbon cycle in the coastal environment, our proposed program addresses two formidable challenges that the carbon community is facing currently. The ubiquitous presence of mesoscale variability poses serious problems for the design of an observing network that attempts to quantify the coastal ocean sources and sinks of atmospheric CO2, such as is being planned for the North American Carbon Program. In addition, carbon-cycle modeling studies that require long integrations, such as those associated with climate change, do not have the computational resources to resolve all mesoscale and submesoscale processes explicitly and therefore need to incorporate the net effect of them in a parametric form.
Our proposed project will build upon many already existing educational and public outreach activities. These include the incorporation of data as examples and homework assignments into several undergraduate classes as well as the undertaking of several educational cruises centered around the mooring platform. In addition, we will make use of UCLA's long tradition in oceano- graphic teaching at primary and secondary schools. In particular, we will collaborate with the NSF funded Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence at UCLA in order to reach out to K-12 teachers and their students.
