Ocean Science and Technology

The program will develop and deploy a sophisticated, unmanned observatory in the Labrador Sea and autonomous sensor systems on commercial vessels to investigate high frequency variations of CO2, O2, nutrients and biological properties over an annual cycle. The data will reveal how, and how fast oxygen is supplied from the atmosphere to the deep ocean, and how the Northwest Atlantic Ocean sequesters vast quantities of human-derived CO2. Complementary measurements and experiments in a fjord adjacent to Halifax, Nova Scotia will unravel complex controls on microbial and chemical processes which transform nitrogen-containing compounds and naturally-produced ozone-destroying gases within the ocean.