Flathead Lake Biological Station embarking on an ocean study

The Flathead Lake Biological Station is leading an international team of biologists on a new research project, trading cool, blue mountain watersheds for the open ocean.  

The project, dubbed SUBSEA but officially called the Subtropical Underwater Biogeochemistry and Subsurface Export Alliance, will receive $9.5 million over five years to study ocean carbon cycling and ecosystem reliance.  

It is one of five projects to receive funding this year through the Ocean Biogeochemistry Virtual Institute and the Schmidt Ocean Institute, philanthropic organizations committed to ocean data collection. 

“The oceans are an integral part of the earth’s climate system. As the planet changes ... the oceans are also changing,” said Matt Church, a biological station aquatic microbial ecology professor and the lead on the project.  

Church, a former University of Hawaii researcher and professor, has spent years studying oceanic marine life. The current project combines the biological station’s impressive skills in researching watersheds alongside Church’s interest in the ocean. 

Much of his work, according to Church, will focus on plankton below the ocean’s immediate surface. 

There is existing data on plankton distribution in the first 30 feet of the ocean thanks to satellite mapping. Data on the ocean’s subsurface, between 30 and 600 feet, is much less available. This project will include study of the subsurface population, trying to better understand plankton in this area of the ocean.  

 “I think to think that we’re bringing a whole bunch of high-end technologies that require you being in the water or on the water to use,” Church said, pointing toward a few planned expeditions off the coast of Argentina, Hawaii and South Africa.  

The project focuses on subtropical ocean gyres, or large systems of rotating ocean currents, which are considered some of the Earth’s largest continuous ecosystems. They are responsible for around 20% of marine primary production and carbon export to the deep sea.  

“They are enormous ecosystems,” Church said. 

To help predict how the marine biosphere will respond to a changing planet, the SUBSEA project will form some of the first comprehensive studies needed for researchers. 

To accomplish that, the SUBSEA project aims to investigate how marine organisms in the ocean’s subsurface affect the gyres’ absorption and circulation of carbon dioxide from the North Pacific to the South Atlantic, according to the biological station. 

The project, using ships in both the North Pacific and South Atlantic, will hopefully generate a mechanistic understanding of plankton productivity and carbon export in the subsurface of the ocean.  

The project is one of five global science and technology efforts selected by the Schmidt Sciences Ocean Biogeochemistry Virtual Institute, which aims to address gaps in ocean data. The group is bringing together 60 scientists from 11 countries for this project.  

The ocean plays a profound role in regulating Earth’s climate, officials with the biogeochemistry institute say. Through the Ocean Biogeochemistry Virtual Institute’s partnership with Schmidt Ocean Insitute, projects like SUBSEA will tackle some of the most challenging biogeochemical data and modeling problems for ocean data collection, integration and interpretation. 

“The hope is that the research from SUBSEA and the four additional selected projects will provide clarity on how much carbon dioxide the ocean can hold and the resilience of marine ecosystems in a rapidly warming world,” a press release on the project reads. 

Other projects that received funding include looking into oxygen and biogeochemical dynamics along the west African margin, the integrations of models and observations across scales, an Ocean Margins Initiative and the study of animals as bioreactors.  

At the end of the project, Church said, he hopes to have an improved understanding of how sensitive organisms are to climate change and the types of factors that may influence that sensitivity to change.  

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com.