Geosciences Home Geosciences Staff Site Map and Search Contact GEO Webmasters www.nsf.gov
Atmospheric Sciences Home Earth Sciences Home Ocean Sciences Home
Funding Opportunities
About the Division

Overview
Research Programs

Center and Facilities
Educational Opportunities
Global Change
Other Initiatives
OCE Staff
Vacancies
Publications and Policies
Committees

Funding
Opportunities
Proposal Information
Dates and Deadlines
Awards Search
What are the Ocean Sciences?
The Science of . . .
Links for Kids
Related Links
Important Announcements
Research Highlights

Share Research Results

 

Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS)

Description

jgofs


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



NSF Celebrating 50 Years Division of Ocean Sciences, NSF
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Room 725, Arlington, Virginia, 22230
Tel: 703.292.8580 | FAX: 703.292.9085

NSF Privacy Policy