Understanding climate change is the predominant scientific challenge of our time, as rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and temperatures influence shifts in weather, storm activity, sea level, biodiversity, and numerous other processes. While direct study of long-term climate variability is not feasible during a six-week voyage, SEA leverages the opportunities presented by its remote, open ocean cruise tracks and repeated annual sampling to build valuable datasets in poorly studied areas of the world. Furthermore, first-hand interactions with coastal communities offer the chance to explore the community impacts of regional climate-related changes already underway.
Ocean Acidification
Using shipboard measurements of seawater pH and alkalinity (buffering capacity), SEA students establish baseline conditions of ocean chemistry and assess changes over time.
El Niño-Southern Oscillation
SEA has sampled the central Pacific for more than 20 years, yielding a dataset that includes multiple El Niño and La Niña phases as well as transitional periods. Oceanographic research in this region includes a consideration of the influences of ENSO regardless of discipline; changing productivity, coral bleaching and recovery, carbon fluxes with the atmosphere and fisheries influences are frequent areas of focus.
Carbon Cycling
SEA student research focuses on measuring organic and inorganic carbon using shipboard instrumentation and laboratory analysis of water samples in order to quantify reservoirs of ocean carbon and the fluxes between them.