Our current understanding of present-day ocean/climate interactions is based largely upon data collected as part of long-term research efforts. The contributions of long-term studies to our knowledge of how the ocean works are numerous and far-reaching. Yet, such studies are exceedingly rare- especially those with a biogeochemical focus.
Since 1978, the Oceanic Flux Program (OFP), under the direction of scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, has continuously measured particle fluxes in the deep Sargasso Sea. The 25-year OFP time-series is, by far, the longest of its kind and unique in its focus on the deep ocean. OFP has produced a unique, albeit "edited", record of temporal variability in the "biological pump", a term loosely applied here to material transfer from the surface to the deep ocean which results from upper ocean biological/physical processes. The OFP provided the first direct evidence for seasonality in the deep ocean and the tight coupling between deep fluxes and upper ocean processes. It has provided clear evidence of the intensity of biological reprocessing of sinking flux and scavenging of suspended material, especially in mesopelagic waters. The record has documented interannual and longer variations in material fluxes to the deep ocean and shorter-term fluctuations driven by the interactions between mesoscale physical variability and synoptic meteorological forcing. The time-series is now becoming long enough that we can begin to study this variability in terms of multiyear basin-scale climatic variations, which alter ocean functioning, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation.
This project will continue the funding for this unique and fundamental oceanographic time-series. As the record gets longer, the scientific community will better able to put into perspective the observed fluctuations in terms of the interplay between climate and ocean functioning. The concurrence of three coordinated and complementary research at the Bermuda time-series site -- the OFP, the Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series (BATS) and the Bermuda Testbed Mooring (BTM) -- and new ocean technology now presents an unprecedented opportunity to study the details of the coupled interactions among ocean physics, biology and chemistry and material fluxes, and how these in turn are linked to atmospheric and climatic forcing.
