Since the 1990s, scientists have deployed thousands of robotic floats equipped with temperature and salinity sensors in the ocean as part of an international effort called the Argo program. These floats have already collected more ocean profiles than all scientific cruises combined. They reveal how ocean temperature and circulation patterns have changed over the years and shed light on the extent that these changes have been caused by humans. But to monitor the impact of climate change on the marine ecosystem—from productivity to fisheries to ocean acidification—scientists need a greater variety of chemical measurements. To that end, research groups around the world have worked in collaboration to develop additional sensors to include on the bodies of Argo floats, turning them into automated biogeochemical floats.
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The Global Ocean Biogeochemistry (GO-BGC) Array of Profiling Floats to Observe Changing Ocean Chemistry and Biology
Abstract The Global Ocean Biogeochemistry (GO-BGC) Array is a project funded by the US National Science Foundation to build a global network of chemical and biological sensors on Argo profiling floats. The network will monitor biogeochemical cycles and ocean health. The floats will collect from a depth of 2,000 meters to the surface, augmenting the existing Argo array that monitors ocean temperature and salinity. Data will be made freely available within a day of being collected via the Argo data system. These data will allow scientists to pursue fundamental questions concerning ocean ecosystems, monitor ocean health and productivity, and observe the elemental cycles of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen through all seasons of the year. Such essential data are needed to improve computer models of ocean fisheries and climate, to monitor and forecast the effects of ocean warming and ocean acidification on sea life, and to address key questions identified in “Sea Change: 2015‐2025 Decadal Survey of Ocean Sciences” such as: What is the ocean's role in regulating the carbon cycle? What are the natural and anthropogenic drivers of open ocean deoxygenation? What are the consequences of ocean acidification? How do physical changes in mixing and circulation affect nutrient availability and ocean productivity?
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- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10378035
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Marine Technology Society Journal
- Volume:
- 56
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0025-3324
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 122 to 123
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract New estimates of
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.4031/MTSJ.56.3.25
