Ocean physics and ecology: can robots disentangle the mix?

Marine phytoplankton are key players in the global carbon cycle, responsible for half of Earth's primary production. This project will use underwater robots to evaluate small-scale physical processes in the upper ocean, its effects on phytoplankton growth and assess the importance of including these processes

in oceanic carbon models. The project will initially use an existing 4-month glider deployment dataset to evaluate the upper ocean drivers of primary production, focusing on small scale forcing resulting from changes in water column structure and relating these to glider chlorophyll-based estimates of

phytoplankton growth. Filling this knowledge gap using these high-resolution data will improve predictions of how the carbon uptake by phytoplankton is affected by both natural variability and changes in physical forcing driven by climate change.