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Research: BATS - Significant Findings
CINTOO Research Programs

Some Significant Findings of the BATS Program

  • Mesoscale eddies are a significant physical feature in the quadrant of the Sargasso Sea where BATS samples.

    Implications: Eddies are contiguous physical features that propagate through the area of the BATS study site and as such impart an additional level of "variability" on many of the parameters that we measure on a monthly basis. There are several types of eddies and they are broken into two groups depending upon if they raise seawater density layers closer to the surface, thereby bring nutrients into the sunlit region of the ocean, or if they depress seawater density layers. Both of these eddy types have significant, but poorly understood impacts on phytoplankton community structure and the sequestration of carbon in the ocean interior.
     
  • Multi-year increase in CO2 concentrations in the surface ocean has now been conclusively documented.

    Implications: At the beginning of BATS, it was hypothesized that the inorganic carbon dioxide concentrations in the surface ocean would increase as the concentrations increased in the atmosphere, but detection of this increase would be "masked" by the large seasonal changes in carbon dioxide. Fourteen years of high-quality measurements have now shown that surface carbon dioxide concentrations are in fact increasing. How the biological system will respond to this increase, however, is much less clear. Different phytoplankton groups have different affinities for carbon dioxide and also have varying efficiencies with which they remove this carbon into the ocean interior.
     
  • Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is now quantified as the largest exchangeable carbon pool in the ocean and at BATS has been shown to be a seasonally important carbon sequestration term.

    Implications: Beyond DOC, dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) and phosphorus (DOP) pools are the largest pools of nitrogen and phosphorus in the surface ocean. Understanding how all of these organic elemental cycles vary with respect to each other has a significant impact on not only the long-term storage of DOC but also potentially the assimilation of carbon dioxide.
     
  • After 14 years of data collection, we can now show that there are links between major biogeochemical parameters in the Sargasso Sea and low-frequency climate patterns, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).

    Implications: Physical processes at a variety of temporal and spatial scales impact biogeochemical cycling of key elements in the ocean concurrently. With regard to global change (i.e. long-term changes), the oceans can be thought of in terms of regional provinces (e.g. the North Atlantic subtropical gyre of which the Sargasso Sea is part) that are impacted by regional, low-frequency physical forces, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation that governs long-term climate in the North Atlantic. So although each year in the northern temperature latitudes is characterized by a seasonal cycle, the NAO in part determines the extent to which winters can be warmer or cooler than the average. Understanding of how these low-frequency physical forces impact biogeochemical cycling is key to predicting future changes within the ocean.


Contacts
Bermuda Institute of
Ocean Sciences
17 Biological Lane
Ferry Reach
St. George's GE 01
Bermuda
Tel: (441) 297-1880
Fax: (441) 297-8143
E-mail: info@bios.edu

President/Director
Anthony H. Knap, PhD.

Director's Office
Gillian Hollis, Assistant
to the Director
Tel: (441) 297-1880 ext. 237
Fax: (441) 297-8143
E-mail: gillian.hollis@bios.edu

Research
Nicholas R. Bates, PhD.
Associate Director of Research
Tel: (441) 297-1880
Fax: (441) 297-8143
E-mail: research@bios.edu

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Internships
F. Gerald Plumley, PhD.
Education Director
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Georgia Sullivan
Tel: (441) 297-1880 ext. 113
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Sandy Spurling
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Jane Burrows
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Vanessa Shorto
Tel: (441) 297-1880 ext. 204
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