Publications
Have you ever wondered how much a single measurement campaign matters when estimating the ocean carbon sink? ⛵
Turns out, in the underobserved Southern Ocean, pCO2 observations from one sailboat change the estimate a lot!
Since 2018, the sailboat "Seaexplorer - Yacht Club de Monaco" has collected pCO2 measurements data for 129 days (2018–2021), including an Antarctic circumnavigation. These observations significantly change the estimate of the ocean carbon sink in the North Atlantic and Southern Ocean. We show that the sailboat observations significantly increase the estimate of the regional carbon uptake in the North Atlantic and decrease it in the Southern Ocean. While compensating changes in both basins limit the global effect, the Southern Ocean - particularly frontal regions (40°S–60°S) during austral summertime - exhibited the largest air-sea CO2 flux changes, averaging 20% of the regional mean. The results stay robust within a measurement uncertainty of ± 5 μatm but become undetectable with a measurement offset of 5 μatm. We thus conclude that sailboats fill essential measurement gaps in remote ocean regions.
A detectable change in the air-sea CO2 flux estimate from sailboat measurements.
Behncke, J., Landschützer, P. & Tanhua, T. A detectable change in the air-sea CO2 flux estimate from sailboat measurements. Sci Rep 14, 3345 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-53159-0
Sailing through the southern seas of air-sea CO2 flux uncertainty
Landschützer, P., Tanhua, T., Behncke, J. & Keppler, L. (2023). Sailing through the southern seas of air-sea CO2 flux uncertainty. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 381 (2249), 20220064. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rsta.2022.0064. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2022.006451
Publications in preparation
Primary producers are controlled by light and nutrients in the Humboldt upwelling system: a mesocosm study off Peru
Thielecke, A. et al. (incl. Behncke, J.). Primary producers are controlled by light and nutrients in the Humboldt upwelling system: a mesocosm study off Peru. (submitted to Deep-Sea Research Part II).
Effect of Light and Upwelling Intensity on the Phytoplankton Community Composition in the Peruvian Upwelling System
Behncke, J. et al. Effect of Light and Upwelling Intensity on the Phytoplankton Community Composition in the Peruvian Upwelling System. (submitted to Deep-Sea Research Part II).
Presentations
October 2024 - Invited speaker at SOCCO Seminar | Southern Ocean Carbon & Climate Observatory
How sailboat measurements affect air-sea CO2 flux estimates (oral presentation)
February 2024 - Ocean Sciences Meeting, New Orleans (LA)
A detectable change in the air-sea CO2 flux estimate from sailboat measurements (oral presentation)
November 2023 - Invited speaker at Workshops on surface ocean pCO2 observations, synthesis and data products, Oostende (BEL)
A detectable change in the air-sea CO2 flux estimate from sailboat measurements (oral presentation)
July 2023 - Invited speaker at BGC Argo Science Meeting
Quantifying the added value of underway pCO2 data from sailboats (oral presentation)
June 2023 - SOLAS Summer School at Ocean Science Centre in Mindelo, Cabo Verde (CPV)
Quantifying the added value of underway pCO2 data from sailboats (oral & poster presentation)
May 2023 - 54th International Liège Colloquium on Ocean Dynamics - Machine Learning and Data Analysis in Oceanography in Liège (BEL)
Quantifying the added value of underway pCO2 data from sailboats (oral presentation)
April 2023 - European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU) in Vienna (AUT)
Quantifying the added value of underway pCO2 data from sailboats (oral presentation)
April 2023 - Invited speaker at Webinar Series of Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) Southern Ocean Fluxes (SOFLUX) Capability Working Group
Quantifying the added value of underway pCO2 data from sailboats (oral presentation)
Jan 2023 - WMO International Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Symposium in Geneva (CHE)
Quantifying the added value of underway pCO2 data from sailboats (poster presentation)
May 2022 - European Geosciences Union General Assembly (EGU) in Vienna (AUT)
Effect of Light and Upwelling Intensity on the Phytoplankton Community Composition in the Peruvian Upwelling System (oral presentation)