ocean – UCI

Earth system scientists uncover ice-age shift in Pacific Ocean circulation

Written on March 29, 2023.

The overturning circulation of the Pacific Ocean “flipped” during the last ice age, altering the placement of ancient waters rich in carbon dioxide, according to Earth system scientists at the University of California, Irvine. In a paper published in Science Advances, the researchers suggest that this shift in the 3D churning of such a large ocean basin must have enhanced the sequestration of CO2 in the deep sea, thereby lowering the amount of the greenhouse gas in ice-age Earth’s...

UCI oceanographers solve mystery of phytoplankton survival in nutrient-poor Pacific

Written on February 14, 2018.

Essential iron is hoarded and recycled by the climate-regulating aquatic plants Irvine, Calif., Feb. 14, 2018 — Upwelling in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean provides essential nutrients for the region’s microscopic plants, but iron – a key ingredient that facilitates nitrogen consumption – is in short supply. To compensate, the phytoplankton band together to recycle the scarce metal and retain it in their upper-ocean habitat, scientists at the University of California, Irvine have discovered. “For...

In ocean carbon recycling, size matters

Written on November 15, 2016.

The journal Nature Geoscience published a study today from UCI Earth system scientists on the size-reactivity continuum in the ocean carbon cycle. Detrital (not living) organic matter is a very large reservoir of carbon stored in the world’s oceans; it’s roughly equal in size to the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere. Marine organic matter spans a spectrum of sizes from whales measuring in tens of meters to small, dissolved molecules measuring 1 nanometer to hundreds of angstroms....

UCI Undergrads’ Work Key to Global Ocean Algae Count

Written on May 28, 2013.

UCIrvine News A new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that identifies critical marine life relies on work done by UC Irvine undergraduates, according to lead author Adam Martiny, a UC Irvine associate professor of Earth system science. The students’ analysis helped an international consortium of scientists determine that the world’s oceans contain an octillion (that’s 27 zeroes) cyanobacteria. This blue-green algae is a primary food source for other life, and its current...

Tag: ocean

Earth system scientists uncover ice-age shift in Pacific Ocean circulation

UCI oceanographers solve mystery of phytoplankton survival in nutrient-poor Pacific

In ocean carbon recycling, size matters

UCI Undergrads’ Work Key to Global Ocean Algae Count