Oceanic CO₂ Uptake: Research aims

Calculation of the role of the oceans in the global CO₂ cycle is rendered difficult due to the highly interlinked and interdependent nature of the underlying physical, chemical and biological processes. For this reason, models of ocean circulation and of the central components of CO₂ circulation are indispensable for the determination of the current status, as well as for predictions of the situation in the future. However, models used to date have been highly inaccurate.

The junior research group aims to combine historical and current measurements of the important ocean components with models, in order to solve this problem. The improvement of existing ocean models and model-based predictions of oceanic CO₂ circulation will be carried out in a collaboration between the Kiel Institute of Marine Research and the numerical mathematics section of the Institute of Computer Science. The central aim is to determine current and future anthropogenic CO₂ sequestration by the ocean and the CO₂ pathway through the oceanic carbon cycle.