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Introduction to GEOTRACES Program: Identifying Key Trace Elements in the Ocean

Learn about the GEOTRACES program and its mission to identify and quantify the fluxes of key trace elements in the ocean. Explore the anticipated benefits, strategy, and overarching goals of the program, as well as the capacity-building efforts and program elements.

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Introduction to GEOTRACES Program: Identifying Key Trace Elements in the Ocean

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  1. An introduction to the program Bob Anderson Co-chair International GEOTRACES SSC http://www.geotraces.org/

  2. GEOTRACES guiding mission “To identify processes and quantify fluxes that control the distributions of key trace elements and isotopes (TEIs) in the ocean, and to establish the sensitivity of these distributions to changing environmental conditions” Mission

  3. What are the “key” elements? They include: • Those acting as micronutrients to control ocean productivity and ecosystems • Those tracing modern processes in the ocean • Contaminants in the present and future ocean • Chemical species used as proxies to reconstruct past climate Key TEIs

  4. What are the anticipated benefits? They include: Identify sources and sinks and quantify internal cycling of essential micronutrients (e.g., Fe, Zn, Co, Cd, Cu). Calibrate geochemical tracers used to reconstruct past ocean conditions (e.g., circulation, chemistry, biological productivity, carbon fluxes) for more reliable applications. Quantify groundwater supply of dissolved materials. Improve predictions of the transport and fate of contaminants. Anticipated Benefits

  5. Strategy and Overarching Goals Need to understand fluxes at four interfaces and four types of internal cycling. Coupled to study of the capture of information as proxies

  6. Development of GEOTRACES 2000 Group discussions at international meetings 2001 Fall AGU special session and open meeting 2003 International Planning Workshop - Toulouse (Funded by NSF) SCOR sponsorship and establishment of Planning Group National planning meetings Science Plan writing starts 2006 Science Plan published; SSC forms 2007-09 First cruises - IPY and intercalibration 2007 Basin planning workshops (Hawaii; Oxford; Goa) First Model-Data Workshop (Delmenhorst) Data assembly centre starts; COST Action starts 2009 Arctic Basin workshop (Delmenhorst) Second Model-Data Workshop (Paris) 2010 First full GEOTRACES Sections International Project Office (IPO) set up (Toulouse) Timeline

  7. Substantial interdisciplinary benefits of disciplinary study of ocean geochemistry Now 30 years since last global program in marine geochemistry (GEOSECS) Improved ability to sample the ocean without contamination Increased sensitivity of analytical instrumentation Advances in modeling permit rates and fluxes to be derived Timeliness

  8. Contamination free sampling systems:Principal GEOTRACES Capacity-Building Effort • Japan • Netherlands • U.S.A. • New Zealand (2000m) • France (under construction) • Germany (funded) • Canada (expanding) • India (funded) • Australia (under construction) • Taiwan (3000m) • UK (awaiting winch) • China (seeking funding with new ship)

  9. Trace metal - clean sampling technology and methods Many nations lack infrastructure and expertise for clean sampling Principal barrier is sampling at sea, not analyses GEOTRACES offers international assistance in design, construction and use of clean sampling systems GEOTRACES: Capacity Building

  10. Enabling Activities Standards and intercalibration Data protocols, management, archiving Modeling Capacity Building International Polar Year Ocean Sections Core activity - requires international cooperation Covering regions dominated by major processes National cruises with international collaboration Process Studies Targeted at processes known to be important Targeted at “anomalies” detected in ocean sections Some will focus on ocean boundaries (e.g., coastal regions) Some will exploit time-series stations GEOTRACES: Program Elements

  11. Enabling Activities Intercalibration Two US-led cruises in 2008 and 2009 International measurement intercalibration (Cutter, Bruland, Sherrell) Data management Hosted at British Oceanographic Data Centre http://www.bodc.ac.uk/geotraces/ Data Manager - Dr. Ed Mawji (Measures, Schiltzer) Modelling to plan cruises and benefit from data Two international data-model workshops held in Germany and France (Schlitzer, Dutay)

  12. Metals as Essential Micronutients Nitrogen Cycle Uptake of C, N and P Morel et al., 2003

  13. Existing deep ocean Fe data DataLimited for Fe Fe data is scarce, particularly in the deep ocean, limited understanding of the Fe cycle Stations with Fe concentrations at depths > 2000 m in 2003 (taken from GEOTRACES Science Plan 2006)

  14. Existing deep ocean Zn data DataLimited for Fe Distribution and cycling of other micronutrients poorly known Stations with Zn concentrations at depths > 2000 m As of 2009 - compiled by Maeve Lohan

  15. Distribution and cycling of the macronutrients AtlanticNitrate Nitrate data from WOCE A16 section One of 24 such sections in Atlantic alone

  16. Pre-GEOTRACES Atlantic Section

  17. Aluminum traces supply of dust, a source of iron • Al traces source of Fe • Fe distribution reflects biological uptake and regeneration Measures et al., 2008

  18. Distribution and cycling of the macronutrients AtlanticNitrate Nitrate data from WOCE A16 section One of 24 such sections in Atlantic alone

  19. …compared to the micronutrients Fe (nmol/kg) Atlantic Fe Data show richness of features in Fe distribution (Measures et al. 2008)

  20. As recently as a decade ago it was thought that [Fe] in the deep ocean was uniform everywhere. Deep ocean has rich spatial features: • Gradients opposite of macronutrients (N, P) • Reflects unique sources and internal cycling Deep Ocean Fe Gradients Boyd and Ellwood, Nature Geoscience, 2010

  21. • Combine distributions with knowledge of basic processes • Infer: Sources, sinks, internal cycling • Multi TEI strategy reveals additional information • Initial emphasis on sections to characterize distributions Overriding Goal: Characterize TEI distributions

  22. International Polar Year Marion Dufresne during Bonus-Goodhope IPY cruise

  23. Proposed Atlantic Sections

  24. Iron and Mn indicate hydrothermal vents on Mid Ocean Ridge Fe Africa Antarctica Mn Unpublished data of Maarten Klunder, Patrick Laan, Rob Middag and Hein de Baar Al

  25. • International workshops define priorities for each basin • National committees select elements based on: National priorities Anticipated benefits Resources Interests and expertise • Coordination via international SSC Strategy for Global Ocean Coverage

  26. Global Ocean Coverage In red: Planned Sections. In yellow: Completed Sections. In black: Sections completed as GEOTRACES contribution to the IPY.

  27. Global Ocean Coverage Completed GA02: Netherlands (2010/11) GA03: USA (2010/11) GA06: UK (2011) GA10: UK (2010/11) GA11: Germany (2010) GA04: Netherlands and Spain (2013) Future plans GA01: France (2014-2015)

  28. Completed GI04: Japan (2010) GI02: India (2012) GI03: India (2013) Future Plans GI01: India (2013) GI05: Australia/France (2015/2016) Global Ocean Coverage

  29. Global Ocean Coverage Completed GP03: Japan (2010) GP13: Aus/NZ (2011) GP18: Japan (2011) GP12: France (2012) GP02: Japan (2012) Firm Plans GP16: USA (2013) GP07: China-Taipei (2014) Future plans GP04: Canada GP06: China-Japan GP08 and GP09: China GP10: Japan (2014) GP11: Australia GP15 and GP17: USA GP19: Japan

  30. European co-ordination: • An ESF COST Action was funding networking and meetings across Europe (http://costaction.earth.ox.ac.uk/) • Involvement of 18 European countries • (Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden,Switzerland, United Kingdom) • One focus is on co-ordination and organization of a Mediterranean Sea cruise (June-August 2013) • Arctic co-ordination: • Co-ordination meeting in Delmenhorst, Germany 2009 • Second co-ordination meeting (29 September - 1 October, 2010), Washington, D.C. • Third co-ordination meeting in Vancouver, Canada 2012. Transnational GEOTRACES Activities

  31. 2015 GEOTRACES International Arctic Programme GEOTRACES Arctic Workshop (May 2-4, 2012 - Vancouver, Canada) Proposed tentative cruise tracks: • Red (US, UK, Russia) • Magenta (Canada) • Yellow (Sweden) • Black (Germany) Yellow dots denote cross-over stations to be occupied by more than one national program for calibration. Report available on the GEOTRACES site: http://www.geotraces.org

  32. Western Pacific Coordination Report of the GEOTRACES Pacific Planning Workshop, 2007

  33. Links to other programmes Need to understand fluxes at four interfaces and four types of internal cycling. Coupled to study of the capture of information a proxies

  34. Links to other programmes SOLAS IMBER InterRidge CLIVAR Need to understand fluxes at four interfaces and four types of internal cycling. Coupled to study of the capture of information a proxies PAGES

  35. www.geotraces.org ipo@geotraces.org

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