Project: North Atlantic Spring Bloom 2005

Climate-related shifts in phytoplankton assemblages may have profound implications for oceanic feedbacks on the atmosphere, and for human use of marine resources. Particular algal groups are largely responsible for crucial processes like vertical carbon export, biogenic calcification and silicification, production of climatically active gases like dimethylsulfide (DMS), and for sustaining food webs that lead to economically valuable higher trophic levels. The North Atlantic Spring Bloom 2005 (NASB 2005) research program was designed to investigate potential climate change impacts on algal community structure and biogeochemistry during the North Atlantic Spring Bloom, a regime that is ideal for determining how changing ocean conditions may affect both calcareous and siliceous algae.

The research was coordinated with CarboOcean, a major European Union funded activity led by investigators from the Alfred Wegener Institute.