Ships of Opportunity investigate the ocean’s uptake of carbon

The icebreaking Le Comandant Charcot cruise ship glides on calm seas amid icebergs. Credit: NOAA

Leticia Barbero, Ph.D., a principal investigator with the Ocean Carbon Cycle group at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) and a scientist with the University of Miami’s Cooperative Institute of Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS), traversed the Arctic aboard the ship Le Commandant Charcot. An icebreaking cruise ship, Le Comandant Charcot departed from Nome, Alaska heading to the magnetic North Pole and finally to Svalbard, Norway with a group of 20 scientists from eight countries and over 200 passengers. 

While others investigated microplastics, ice cores, and environmental DNA, Leticia collected data as part of the International Ships of Opportunity Program to monitor the global ocean’s uptake of carbon – and ultimately rising acidification in one of the world’s most remote regions. 

Carbon dioxide, like all gasses, diffuses between the atmosphere and the ocean. With rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the ocean accumulates more carbon through air-sea gas exchanges as part of its natural cycle. However, rising levels of carbon in the ocean has consequences – and one of them is ocean acidification.