Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) Description U.S. JGOFS was the U.S. component of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), sponsored by the Scientific Committee for Oceanic Research (SCOR), and a "Core Project" of the International Council of Scientific Union's International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. JGOFS had two goals: 1) To determine and understand on a global scale the processes controlling the time-varying fluxes of carbon and associated biogenic elements in the ocean, and to evaluate the related exchanges with the atmosphere, sea floor, and continental boundaries. 2) To develop a capability to predict on a global scale the response of oceanic biogeochemical processes to anthropogenic perturbations, in particular those related to climate change. Each year some 40 percent of CO2 generated by burning fossil fuels are added to the atmosphere and transferred to the sea. The imprint of this signal provides a significant perturbation of ocean chemistry. The buildup of atmospheric CO2 can enhance greenhouse effects which may contribute to global alterations in temperature, sea-level height, river runoff, and sediment flow. JGOFS experiments were designed to observe natural cycles so that the changes wrought by man are discernible. Models addressing this process typically use an abiological ocean, and the fossil fuel signal appears in such models as if written on a constant background. The true ocean contains large time-varying gradients of the natural cycle on which the fossil fuel signal is superimposed. JGOFS program elements consisted of a global survey of ocean CO2 chemistry, time-series stations, process studies, data management, and modeling. Related Links
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Division of Ocean Sciences,
NSF |