Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences is developing a biogeochemical computer model that improves our estimates of how the vast population of ocean zooplankton—tiny marine animals—move and lock away carbon in the deep ocean. Most ocean models treat zooplankton as a “black box” and lack key zooplankton behaviors that can result in carbon transport, leading to uncertainties in carbon accounting. The proposed work seeks to capture these behaviors in a plankton-focused model and then integrate these processes into other biogeochemical models to provide realistic and accurate accounting of the carbon they transport between the surface and deep ocean for carbon dioxide removal approaches, such as ocean iron fertilization and ocean macronutrient fertilization.