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1. What global biogeochemical consequences will marine animal–sediment interactions have during climate change?

   https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.2020.00180  

   Bianchi, Thomas S.; Aller, Robert C.; Atwood, Trisha B.; Brown, Craig J.; Buatois, Luis A.; Levin, Lisa A.; Levinton, Jeffrey S.; Middelburg, Jack J.; Morrison, Elise S.; Regnier, Pierre; et al (January 2021, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene)

   null (Ed.)

   Benthic animals profoundly influence the cycling and storage of carbon and other elements in marine systems, particularly in coastal sediments. Recent climate change has altered the distribution and abundance of many seafloor taxa and modified the vertical exchange of materials between ocean and sediment layers. Here, we examine how climate change could alter animal-mediated biogeochemical cycling in ocean sediments. The fossil record shows repeated major responses from the benthos during mass extinctions and global carbon perturbations, including reduced diversity, dominance of simple trace fossils, decreased burrow size and bioturbation intensity, and nonrandom extinction of trophic groups. The broad dispersal capacity of many extant benthic species facilitates poleward shifts corresponding to their environmental niche as overlying water warms. Evidence suggests that locally persistent populations will likely respond to environmental shifts through either failure to respond or genetic adaptation rather than via phenotypic plasticity. Regional and global ocean models insufficiently integrate changes in benthic biological activity and their feedbacks on sedimentary biogeochemical processes. The emergence of bioturbation, ventilation, and seafloor-habitat maps and progress in our mechanistic understanding of organism–sediment interactions enable incorporation of potential effects of climate change on benthic macrofaunal mediation of elemental cycles into regional and global ocean biogeochemical models. 

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2. What global biogeochemical consequences will marine animal-sediment interactions have during climate change?

   Bianchi, T.S. (June 2021, Elementa)

   Benthic animals profoundly influence the cycling and storage of carbon and other elements in marine systems, particularly in coastal sediments. Recent climate change has altered the distribution and abundance of many seafloor taxa and modified the vertical exchange of materials between ocean and sediment layers. Here, we examine how climate change could alter animal-mediated biogeochemical cycling in ocean sediments.The fossil record shows repeated major responses from the benthos during mass extinctions and global carbon perturbations, including reduced diversity, dominance of simple trace fossils, decreased burrow size and bioturbation intensity, and nonrandom extinction of trophic groups. The broad dispersal capacity of many extant benthic species facilitates poleward shifts corresponding to their environmental niche as overlying water warms. Evidence suggests that locally persistent populations will likely respond to environmental shifts through either failure to respond or genetic adaptation rather than via phenotypic plasticity. Regional and global ocean models insufficiently integrate changes in benthic biological activity and their feedbacks on sedimentary biogeochemical processes. The emergence of bioturbation, ventilation, and seafloor-habitat maps and progress in our mechanistic understanding of organism–sediment interactions enable incorporation of potential effects of climate change on benthic macrofaunal mediation of elemental cycles into regional and global ocean biogeochemical models. 

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3. OS13C-1309 Fingerprinting the Effects of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement in the California Current System Regional Ocean Model with Carbon Isotopes

   Ryan A Green Patrick A Rafter Christopher A Edwards Jerome Fiechter Mathis Hain (December 2023, Transactions American Geophysical Union)

   Abstract Measuring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR) presents challenges due to the dynamic nature of the ocean and the complex processes influencing marine carbonate chemistry. Given these challenges, finding the optimal sampling strategies and suite of parameters to be measured is a timely research question. While traditional carbonate parameters such as total alkalinity (TA), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), pH, and seawater pCO2 are commonly considered, exploring the potential of carbon isotopes for quantifying additional CO2 uptake remains a relatively unexplored research avenue. In this study, we use a coupled physical-biogeochemical model of the California Current System (CCS) to run a suite of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) simulations. The physical circulation for the CCS is generated using a nested implementation of the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) with an outer domain of 1/10 ̊ (~10 km) and an inner domain of 1/30 ̊ (~3 km) resolution. The biogeochemical model, NEMUCSC, is a customized version of the North Pacific Ecosystem Model for Understanding Regional Oceanography (NEMURO) that includes carbon cycling and carbon isotopes. The CCS is one of four global eastern boundary upwelling systems characterized by high biological activity and CO2 concentrations. Consequently, the CCS represents an essential test case for investigating the efficacy and potential side effects of OAE deployments. The study aims to address two key questions: (1) the relative merit of OAE to counter ocean acidification versus the additional sequestration of CO2 from the atmosphere, and (2) the footprint of potentially harmful seawater chemistry adjacent to OAE deployments. We plan to leverage these high-resolution model results to competitively evaluate different MRV strategies, with a specific focus on analyzing the spatiotemporal distribution of carbon isotopic signatures following OAE. In this talk, we will showcase our initial results and discuss challenges in integrating high-resolution regional modeling into models of the global carbon cycle. More broadly, this work aims to provide insights into the plausibility of OAE as a climate solution that maintains ocean health and to inform accurate quantification of carbon uptake for MRV purposes. https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm23/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/1437343 

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4. CM44B-1175 Using Carbon Isotopes and Regional Ocean Modeling to Trace the Impact of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement in the California Current System

   Green, Ryan A; Rafter, Patrick A; Edwards, Christopher A; Fiechter, Jerome; Hain, Mathis (February 2024, Transactions American Geophysical Union)

   Abstract Measuring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of ocean-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR) presents challenges due to the dynamic nature of the ocean and the complex processes influencing marine carbonate chemistry. Given these challenges, finding the optimal sampling strategies and suite of parameters to be measured is a timely research question. While traditional carbonate parameters such as total alkalinity (TA), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), pH, and seawater pCO2 are commonly considered, exploring the potential of carbon isotopes for quantifying additional CO2 uptake remains a relatively unexplored research avenue. In this study, we use a coupled physical-biogeochemical model of the California Current System (CCS) to run a suite of Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) simulations. The physical circulation for the CCS is generated using a nested implementation of the Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) with an outer domain of 1/10 ̊ (~10 km) and an inner domain of 1/30 ̊ (~3 km) resolution. The biogeochemical model, NEMUCSC, is a customized version of the North Pacific Ecosystem Model for Understanding Regional Oceanography (NEMURO) that includes carbon cycling and carbon isotopes. The CCS is one of four global eastern boundary upwelling systems characterized by high biological activity and CO2 concentrations. Consequently, the CCS represents an essential test case for investigating the efficacy and potential side effects of OAE deployments. The study aims to address two key questions: (1) the relative merit of OAE to counter ocean acidification versus the additional sequestration of CO2 from the atmosphere, and (2) the footprint of potentially harmful seawater chemistry adjacent to OAE deployments. We plan to leverage these high-resolution model results to competitively evaluate different MRV strategies, with a specific focus on analyzing the spatiotemporal distribution of carbon isotopic signatures following OAE. In this talk, we will showcase our initial results and discuss challenges in integrating high-resolution regional modeling into models of the global carbon cycle. More broadly, this work aims to provide insights into the plausibility of OAE as a climate solution that maintains ocean health and to inform accurate quantification of carbon uptake for MRV purposes. https://agu.confex.com/agu/OSM24/prelim.cgi/Paper/1491096 

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5. Novel Insights into Ocean Trace Element Cycling from Biogeochemical Models

   https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2024.418  

   Tagliabue, Alessandro; Weber, Thomas (January 2024, Oceanography)

   Ocean biogeochemical models have become critical tools for interpreting trace element and isotope (TEI) distributions observed during the GEOTRACES program and understanding their driving processes. Models stimulate new research questions that cannot be addressed with observations alone, for instance, concerning processes that occur over vast spatial scales and linkages between TEIs and other elemental cycles. A spectrum of modeling approaches has been applied to date, including (1) fully prognostic models that couple TEIs to broader biogeochemical frameworks, (2) simpler element-specific mechanistic models that allow for assimilation of observations, and (3) machine learning models that have no mechanistic underpinning but allow for skillful extrapolation of sparse data. Here, we evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches and review three sets of novel insights they have facilitated. First, models have advanced our understanding of global-scale micronutrient distributions, and their deviations from macronutrients, in terms of a “ventilation-regeneration-scavenging” balance. Second, models have yielded global-scale estimates of TEI inputs to and losses from the ocean, revealing, for instance, a rapid iron (Fe) cycle with an oceanic residence time on the order of decades. Third, models have identified novel links among various TEI cycling processes and the global ocean carbon cycle, such as tracing the supply of hydrothermally sourced Fe to iron-starved microbial communities in the Southern Ocean. We foresee additional important roles for modeling work in the next stages of trace element research, including synthesizing understanding from the GEOTRACES program in the form of TEI state estimates, and projecting the responses of TEI cycles to global climate change. 

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