Carbon and the Elements of Life: Integrated Observing and Modeling of Marine Biological Carbon Cycles

Susanne Elizabeth Craig , Joaquim Goes, Hannah Joy-Warren, Catherine Mitchell, Maria Tzortziou

The global ocean acts as a massive reservoir for carbon dioxide, establishing ocean biogeochemistry as a primary driver of global carbon distributions [1-3]. This dynamic system is mediated by living organisms that cycle carbon and other elements through the ocean interior and air-sea interface, and is already being altered by warming, acidification, deoxygenation, and shifting nutrient supply [4]. Predicting how this role and ocean life will respond is a central unresolved challenge for Earth system science.
This white paper presents the science case and a phased, multi-platform observing and modeling strategy for the Climate and the Elements of Life grand challenge, following NASA's Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry (OBB) Research Program science vision [5]. We recommend: (1) sustained hyperspectral and polarimetric ocean color resolving the mesoscale; (2) an ocean-optimized profiling lidar for subsurface elemental cycling and physiological state; (3) continued geostationary and, eventually, Lagrange-point observations; (4) an expanded autonomous and ship-based in situ network; and (5) mass-conserving biogeochemical models and assimilation fusing these into predictive estimates of carbon cycling and air-sea exchange.
Together, these elements would give the nation the capability to track how the ocean's biological regulation of global biogeochemical pathways is changing and to responsibly evaluate proposed ocean-based carbon management strategies before they are deployed at scale.