Long-term time series are a powerful tool for investigating ocean physics and biogeochemistry, its effects on the global carbon cycle, and its response to climate change. In particular, the research goals of the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) program at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) have been, and continue to be, improving our understanding of the time-varying components of the ocean carbon cycle, related biogenic elements of interest (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus, silica), and identifying the relevant physical, chemical and ecosystem properties responsible for this variability. The existing 24 years of data from BATS provide robust constraints on seasonal and year-over-year variability, the response of the Sargasso Sea ecosystem to natural climate variability and detection of potential climate change signals. Multi-decadal observations at BATS also provide critically needed rates of change in the ocean carbon cycle, CO2 sinks-sources in the North Atlantic and the longest global record of ocean acidification.
Throughout its twenty-five years of operation, the objectives of BATS have been: (1) to document the temporal variability in nutrient cycles and biological communities; (2) to quantify the role of ocean-atmosphere coupling and climate forcing on air-sea exchange of CO2, and carbon export to the ocean interior; (3) to study the role of physical forcing (e.g., surface fluxes of heat, freshwater and momentum) on planktonic community structure and function, including new and export productivity; (4) to study the role of climate-induced variability in surface fluxes on planktonic community structure and function, and (5) to provide for development/validation of new oceanographic tools and technologies.
This renewal award to BIOS and the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences will provide funding to continue the BATS program through years 26-30. While continuing the core goals, the research team will address several new long-term questions that have developed from the previous BATS data. These questions are related to the: (1) impact of eddies on interannual variability in winter mixing; (2) detection of climate change signals in surface and deep waters of the Sargasso; (3) impact of ocean acidification on primary production, partitioning of freshly produced organic carbon between dissolved and particulate phases and remineralization of sedimenting carbon; (4) coupling of particulate and dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, controlling mechanisms and their relationships to the canonical Redfield Ratio, and; (5) reconciliation of integrative geochemical estimates of carbon export and the variety of observational records of carbon export.
Broader Impacts: The BATS program has strong and diverse broader impacts, contributing to the field of ocean sciences by providing high quality ocean observations and data for empiricists and modelers, and a framework from which researchers can conceive and test hypotheses. Indeed, a number of focused process-oriented research programs (e.g., EDDIES, TROPHIC BATS) have spun off from hypotheses arising from BATS data. BATS and these related programs continue to generate a large number of well-cited publications that make important contributions to the field and advance our understanding of the oceans. PIs of the BATS program have been and continue to be dedicated to the training and mentorship of both undergraduate and graduate students (including those with direct BATS PIs supervision and others via ancillary programs). The oceanographic facilities at BIOS allow the project team to train students and technicians and to collaborate with other researchers in a manner few other institutions can provide. Through hands-on laboratory, cruise and data synthesis activities, BATS will continue to directly aid the U.S. national effort to improve the understanding of the oceanic carbon cycle and the impact on global climate
