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1999 Projects
Current
Projects
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1999 Projects: Benthic processes
Ocean chemistry of greenhouse gases
Project lead: Peter Brewer
Project manager: Peter Brewer
Project team: Gernot Friederich, Keith
Kvenvolden (adjunct), George Malby, Edward Peltzer, and John Ryan
This project will continue and extend the ongoing research on the ocean chemistry of
the principal greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane
(CH4), including investigations initiated two years ago into the
hydrates of these gases. The scientific problem this work addresses is broad and contains
aspects of the ocean’s role in climate change, future fuel reserves, limits on our
understanding of the carbon cycle, and the ability to ameliorate greenhouse gas-induced
warming. In 1999 we propose to:
- Complete studies on gas plumes sampled in the Santa Barbara Basin and on the fate of the
gases in seawater
- Establish a local seafloor-hydrate observatory for controlled experiments with the ROV Ventana
- Carry out a novel experiment at a methane-hydrate site within the Eel River Basin off
Northern California (jointly with Miriam Kastner of Scripps Institution of Oceanography)
- Carry out a test of deep-sea nuclear magnetic resonance instrumentation in Monterey Bay,
to investigate the changing proton signal during hydrate formation (a collaboration with
Robert Kleinberg of Schlumberger-Doll Research and James Yesinowski of the Naval Research
Laboratory)
- Continue research on the deep-ocean sequestration of fossil-fuel CO2
to examine options for meeting the Kyoto Protocols to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change
- Continue efforts to find new ways to integrate data on ocean circulation and carbon
dioxide concentrations into global models and devise new means to test these models.
Next: Benthic biology and ecology
Last updated: 07 October 2004 |
