Combining marine autonomy and ship-based science to predict ocean carbon storage

The ocean absorbs around a quarter of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere each year, making it a critical part of the global climate system. Much of this carbon is captured and stored by marine life, but scientists still cannot reliably predict how this process will respond to a changing climate. This creates uncertainty in projections of future climate change and limits the evidence available to inform climate policy and action.

Biological Influence on Future Ocean Storage of Carbon (BIO-Carbon)

Led by the National Oceanography Centre, BIO-Carbonis helping reduce uncertainty about how much carbon the ocean will store in the future by combining research vessels, autonomous vehicles, satellite observations and advanced sensors to investigate the biological processes that control ocean carbon storage. By demonstrating how these approaches can work together, the programme is generating new observations to improve understanding of the ocean carbon cycle and strengthen global Earth system models.

Pushing the boundaries of autonomous research

Co-funded by the FMRI programme, BIO-Carbon's first expedition to sea encountered a vast bloom of coccolithophores – tiny marine algae that play an important role in the ocean carbon cycle – in the Iceland Basin, roughly the size of Scotland.

Two Autosub Long Range (ALR) autonomous vehicles, equipped with advanced sensors to measure ocean biology and chemistry, were deployed alongside the ship. One crossed the Iceland Basin from Reykjavík to Harris in the Scottish Outer Hebrides, marking the first country-to-country deployment of an ALR. The mission was also the first time two ALRs had been deployed simultaneously as part of a single expedition.

Building the future of ocean observing

A second expedition aboard the RRS James Cook built on the initial observations, retrieving the autonomous vehicles and continuing BIO-Carbon's fieldwork. Together, the expeditions demonstrated how autonomous systems can extend the reach of research vessels, enabling scientists to observe processes across larger areas and over longer periods.

This integrated approach can help build the sustained observations needed to understand a changing ocean and improve future environmental predictions.

"The ocean plays a vital role in regulating our climate, but we still need a much better understanding of how marine ecosystems influence the way carbon is stored over time. BIO-Carbon is helping us answer some of the most important scientific questions about the future of the ocean carbon cycle. By improving our understanding of these biological processes, we're strengthening the climate models that governments rely on to make informed decisions and helping provide the evidence needed to support global action on climate change."

Dr Adrian Martin, National Oceanography Centre

Watch a short film about the BIO-Carbon cruise. 

Read the BBC report: Down into the ocean’s ‘twilight zone’ with Boaty McBoatface.

Watch a New Scientist film about the IDAPro project (part of BIO-Carbon).

Understanding the ocean’s carbon cycle

BIO-Carbon is improving understanding of how marine life influences the ocean's ability to absorb and store carbon, helping scientists predict how this role may change as the climate changes.

Demonstrating future approaches to ocean observation

BIO-Carbon demonstrated how ships, autonomous platforms and remote observations can work together to provide broader, longer-term coverage of a changing ocean, supporting more effective future environmental research.

Improving climate predictions

By reducing uncertainty in projections of future ocean carbon storage and climate–carbon feedbacks, BIO-Carbon is strengthening the evidence base for understanding future climate change. 

Better predictions can help governments and international organisations assess climate risks and inform climate policy, carbon budgets and international climate assessments.