Many, many thanks to NC Sea Grant and NC Space Grant for their gracious support and funding for my upcoming project, Investigation of Marine Physical-Biogeochemical Interactions During Storm Conditions Off of the North Carolina Coast. This work will use long-term satellite observations, in-situ data, and numerical model analysis to examine and quantify phytoplankton blooms and air-sea carbon exchange due to hurricanes in the North Carolina coastal ocean. Hurricanes induce two competing mechanisms that exchange carbon: first, strong ocean mixing causes the ocean to release CO2 to the atmosphere, in a process called outgassing. Second, hurricanes induce phytoplankton blooms by upwelling deep ocean nutrients to the upper water column. These phytoplankton blooms, through photosynthesis, move CO2 from the atmosphere to the ocean. By examining the contributions of these two mechanisms, my research seeks to shed light on the role of hurricanes on ocean acidification and climate change.
NC Sea Grant has released a news statement about the fellowship here.
Thank you, NC Sea Grant/Space Grant, and I look forward to working on this exciting research!
