ISblue Chair Ocean

Biogeochemistry and Climate Sciences

Nicolas Cassar

Background

Biogeochemical processes at the ocean surface play a crucial role in marine ecosystems and global climate dynamics. For example, the biological pump facilitates the transfer of carbon to the deep ocean, thereby regulating atmospheric CO₂ levels and influencing global climate.

Despite their significant role in influencing climate, marine biogeochemical processes such as the biological carbon pump remain inadequately quantified. This can be partially attributed to limited observations and the necessity of integrating interdisciplinary research that connects oceanography, biology, and chemistry.

Objectives

To address this issue, scientists in the Cassar lab and at ISblue are constructing theoretical frameworks, conducting laboratory experiments, gathering observations from scientific cruises, and creating a set of tools for high-resolution monitoring of biogeochemical processes at the ocean surface.

These tools can be used to conduct short-term kinetic experiments, real-time mapping on station or on research vessels, and locate episodic events. They can also improve biogeochemical budgets during lab, mesocosm, open-ocean perturbation experiments, including marine carbon dioxide removal experiments (mCDR), and eventually on cabled moorings.

Findings from their work contribute to a wide range of data used for assessing the present state of the carbon cycle, predicting future changes, and assessing policy options.

Approach

The ISblue Chair position (2024-2027) is a continuation of the LabexMER International Chair position in marine ecology and biogeochemistry held by Prof. Cassar since 2016.

LabexMER was a cluster of excellence funded by the French “Investment for the Future” program. ISblue emerged from LabexMER, uniting “the best research teams and laboratories in the field of marine sciences and technology in order to meet the major ocean-related challenges of the 21^th century”.

The ISblue Chair position integrates two distinct but closely related aspects aimed at promoting synergies between Nicolas Cassar’s lab at Duke University and partners at IUEM, particularly within the hosting lab at LEMAR:

• As part of theme 1 of the ISblue effort on “Ocean & Climate Regulation”, a postdoctoral fellow will be recruited at IUEM to study surface ocean biogeochemistry in relation to climate, climate change, and climate change mitigation. 
• The second aspect focuses on empowering master’s students to specialize in designing and developing oceanographic instrumentation by providing training in both hardware and software engineering. This is facilitated through internships within the Cassar lab at Duke University.