Ocean Topic: Biological Carbon Pump

Scientists generally consider carbon to be sequestered once it reaches a depth of 500 meters (1,640 feet). The ocean’s so-called biological carbon pump removes carbon from the atmosphere and stores it deep in the ocean on timescales that are important to the lifespan of humans. The solubility carbon pump, which stores much larger amounts of carbon, operates on timescales in the thousands of years and is a much slower mixing process. The smallest zooplankton are single-celled protozoans, also called microzooplankton, which eat the smallest phytoplankton cells in the ocean.

Tracking Carbon From the Ocean Surface to the Dark “Twilight Zone”

Many creatures called zooplankton are also tiny protists, but the category simultaneously includes animals on the other end of the size scale. Jellyfish are among the simplest animals on Earth and are considered plankton, but some individuals have been measured at 130 feet long, longer than a blue whale. Understanding how the biological carbon pump works to export carbon to the deep sea can help researchers improve models of the ocean’s role in climate.

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• Most zooplankton spend their entire lives drifting, but the larvae of many fish and bottom-living animals, before they develop adult forms, are also part of this group.

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• Zooplankton fill a crucial link between phytoplankton (“the grass of the sea”) and larger, open-ocean animals.

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• Unfortunately, the gelatinous salps have much lower nutritional content and therefore are not good food for those higher-level animals.

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• The ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide varies over time and space and is predicted to decline over the rest of this century.

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• The smallest zooplankton are single-celled protozoans, also called microzooplankton, which eat the smallest phytoplankton cells in the ocean.
• Scientists are particularly interested in the various ways animals here bioluminesce and how their visual systems are adapted to detect this natural glow.

How does the world’s largest animal migration affect the biological carbon pump?

Every evening in the ocean, animals that spend their days in the deep, dark waters of the ocean’s twilight zone swim to the surface to feed. By feeding at the surface before returning to deeper waters, these animals actively carry carbon deeper into the water column. When sunlight hits the ocean’s surface waters, it stimulates tiny marine plants called phytoplankton to photosynthesize. This process removes carbon dioxide dissolved in the water as phytoplankton incorporate the carbon as they grow. As carbon dioxide levels in surface waters decrease, water is then able to absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Small marine animals called zooplankton feed on phytoplankton and are, in turn, eaten by larger marine organisms.
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• As carbon dioxide levels in surface waters decrease, water is then able to absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

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• Understanding how the biological carbon pump works to export carbon to the deep sea can help researchers improve models of the ocean’s role in climate.

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• These tiny cells, some only a micron across, are invisible but present in numbers of hundreds of thousands of cells per tablespoon of ocean water.

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• In turn, the billions of cells produced might absorb enough heat-trapping carbon dioxide to cool the Earth’s warming atmosphere.

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• The biological carbon pump plays a huge role in the ocean’s ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

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• Because they need light, phytoplankton live near the surface, where enough sunlight can penetrate to power photosynthesis.

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Short-circuiting the Biological Pump

In turn, the billions of cells produced might absorb enough heat-trapping carbon dioxide to cool the Earth’s warming atmosphere. These tiny cells, some only a micron across, are invisible but present in numbers of hundreds of thousands of cells per tablespoon of ocean water. Scientists now know these bacteria are responsible for half of the ocean’s primary productivity and are the most abundant organisms in the sea. Because they need light, phytoplankton live near the surface, where enough sunlight can penetrate to power photosynthesis. An account of the tools that have been employed to collect zooplankton has been recently prepared by Wiebe and Benfield (2000), and provides a description of standard sampling methods.

Will melting glaciers cool the climate?

• Every evening in the ocean, animals that spend their days in the deep, dark waters of the ocean’s twilight zone swim to the surface to feed.
• Aruda studies some of the smallest animals in the ocean—barely visible crustaceans called copepods and the bacteria that hitchhike on them.

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• Through photosynthesis these organisms transform inorganic carbon in the atmosphere and in seawater into organic compounds, making them an essential part of Earth’s carbon cycle.

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• Scientists think that the extent of sea ice and the temperature of the ocean each year may influence the balance between salp and krill populations.

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• This process removes carbon dioxide dissolved in the water as phytoplankton incorporate the carbon as they grow.

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• Advisor, and with MIT biologist Martin Polz, who studies Vibrio on tiny marine animals, or zooplankton, such as copepods.

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The ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide varies over time and space and is predicted to decline over the rest of this century. A more detailed understanding of the pump’s ability to remove carbon will improve climate models and the ability to forecast the potential impacts of global heating. We need to understand Kilobet the impact such activities would have not only on the ecosystem, but also on the biological carbon pump and its ability to help us fight the climate crisis. The biological carbon pump plays a huge role in the ocean’s ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Without it, the amount of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere would be twice as large as what humans have already added. Scientists are particularly interested in the various ways animals here bioluminesce and how their visual systems are adapted to detect this natural glow.