Reconstructing the long- and short-term variability of the export production in the Atlantic Ocean

• Applicant: Dr. Jörg Lippold
• Subject Area: Geology ; Oceanography
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 546690679

The ocean, being the largest carbon reservoir capable of exchanging carbon with the atmosphere, plays a particularly pivotal role in modulating atmospheric CO2 through a number of physical and biogeochemical processes. One of the most important of these processes is the marine biological pump significantly lowering atmospheric CO2 concentrations today and in the past. The goal of this project is to link to the role of ocean circulation in controlling marine bioproductivity and, thus, the intensity of deep-sea carbon sequestration of the biological pump. For this, new high resolution down-core records of (bio)particle flux from three key regions in the Atlantic Ocean, which have been identified to be particularly sensitive to changes in the Atlantic Overturning Circulation from Earth System Models, will be generated. Focus will be set on time periods of particularly pronounced past changes of circulation, such as Heinrich Events, Terminations and prominent Dansgaard-Oeschger Events within the last glacial cycle.

• DFG Programme: Infrastructure Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 527: Bereich Infrastruktur - "International Ocean Discovery Program" (IODP)
• International Connection: Switzerland
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Frerk Pöppelmeier