Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Project Information
• Funding

Bubble flux measurements and concentrations at two sites on the Virginia Eastern Shore, July 2017.

Gas fluxes from simple inverted bubble traps described in:

Oxygen % of samples was determined by isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) and an oxygen optode.

These data will be published in Long MH, Sutherland K, Wankel SD, Burdige DJ, Zimmerman RC. Ebullition of Oxygen from Seagrasses under Supersaturated Conditions. In Revision: Limnology and Oceanography.

BCO-DMO Processing:
- added conventional header with dataset name, PI name, version date
- modified parameter names to conform with BCO-DMO naming conventions
- reduced precision of O2_Ar and d18O to match input
- split date_time column into separate date, time and ISO_DateTIme_Local columns
- added lat and lon columns from associated dataset

NSF abstract:

This research will develop a quantitative understanding of the factors controlling carbon cycling in seagrass meadows that will improve our ability to quantify their potential as blue carbon sinks and predict their future response to climate change, including sea level rise, ocean warming and ocean acidification. This project will advance a new generation of bio-optical-geochemical models and tools (ECHOES) that have the potential to be transform our ability to measure and predict carbon dynamics in shallow water systems.

This study will utilize cutting-edge methods for evaluating oxygen and carbon exchange (Eulerian and eddy covariance techniques) combined with biomass, sedimentary, and water column measurements to develop and test numerical models that can be scaled up to quantify the dynamics of carbon cycling and sequestration in seagrass meadows in temperate and tropical environments of the West Atlantic continental margin that encompass both siliciclastic and carbonate sediments. The comparative analysis across latitudinal and geochemical gradients will address the relative contributions of different species and geochemical processes to better constrain the role of seagrass carbon sequestration to global biogeochemical cycles. Specifically the research will quantify: (i) the relationship between C stocks and standing biomass for different species with different life histories and structural complexity, (ii) the influence of above- and below-ground metabolism on carbon exchange, and (iii) the influence of sediment type (siliciclastic vs. carbonate) on Blue Carbon storage. Seagrass biomass, growth rates, carbon content and isotope composition (above- and below-ground), organic carbon deposition and export will be measured. Sedimentation rates and isotopic composition of PIC, POC, and iron sulfide precipitates, as well as porewater concentrations of dissolved sulfide, CO2, alkalinity and salinity will be determined in order to develop a bio-optical-geochemical model that will predict the impact of seagrass metabolism on sediment geochemical processes that control carbon cycling in shallow waters. Model predictions will be validated against direct measurements of DIC and O2 exchange in seagrass meadows, enabling us to scale-up the density-dependent processes to predict the impacts of seagrass distribution and density on carbon cycling and sequestration across the submarine landscape.

Status, as of 09 June 2016: This project has been recommended for funding by NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences.