Resolving Biological carbon Export in the Labrador Sea

ReBELS (Resolving Biological carbon Export in the Labrador Sea), a project funded by the UK Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), is a New Investigator Standard Grant awarded to NOC (and BAS as partner). It aims to understand and quantify the transport of oceanic organic carbon into the deep sea and its effect on ocean carbon storage.

ReBELS project has at its heart the close collaboration of a team of physical and biogeochemical oceanographers with expertise in:

1. the biological carbon pump
2. ocean dynamics and circulation
3. the application of state-of-the-art autonomous platforms

Recent advances in autonomous platforms, combined with novel data analysis techniques, will enable ReBELS to quantify the different elements of the biological carbon pump throughout an annual cycle in the northwest North Atlantic. We will set up a year-long ocean observatory in the Labrador Sea using state-of-the-art autonomous observing technologies (gliders and biogeochemical ARGO floats) paired with traditional measurements of carbon flux (moored sediment trap) to understand the different contribution of particle injection pumps to the overall carbon export in the Labrador Sea. ReBELS will quantify the key processes that must be adequately represented in climate models in order to predict North Atlantic carbon drawdown with confidence. Gliders will not be deployed on this first expedition.