Posts by Amber Coogan
A Carbon Budget for the Upper Mesopelagic Zone
(Adapted from Stephens et al., 2025)
Upper ocean carbon budgets are difficult to constrain, and those for the mesopelagic zone come with particular challenges. A recent paper by Stephens et al. (2025) took on the challenge of a comprehensive carbon system budget for the upper mesopelagic zone (100-500 m) based on data from the EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) program (Siegel et al., 2016). The 2018 EXPORTS field campaign was conducted at Ocean Station Papa in the Northeast Pacific to take advantage of the relatively modest surface forcing, shallow summer mixed layer, tightly coupled food web, and low mesoscale kinetic energy. Nevertheless, the study found that a steady-state assumption for the carbon system was likely not appropriate.
Measuring organic carbon supply and demand is challenging due to a variety of factors. Supply includes sinking particles, migrating zooplankton and fish, disaggregation, mixing and subduction. Demand comes primarily from bacteria and zooplankton. Measurement methods for each supply and demand term have errors, conversions to rates have uncertainties, and each process being measured may have a unique timescale over which a rate integration makes sense. EXPORTS was notable for increasing the number and variety of measurements available for monitoring the mesopelagic carbon budget. Stephens et al. take advantage of this by combining multiple measurement methods, quantifying errors and applying statistical methods for error analysis.
The authors used observations from multiple sources. Near-surface data came from the PMEL Station Papa surface mooring. Shipboard profile data come from two ships operating during the EXPORTS field campaign as well as the OOI Station Papa cruise in 2018. Additional water column data came from two OOI Slocum gliders, one EXPORTS-operated Seaglider, and BGC Argo floats. The authors examined each carbon supply and demand estimate, calculating an uncertainty and discussing potential limitations (Stephens et al., Table 1). A Monte Carlo approach was used to assess overall uncertainty in supply and demand terms, resulting in the conclusion that supply was insufficient to meet demand (e.g. Fig. 1 below). The error analysis allowed the authors to conclude that the mismatch was not the result of problems in estimating supply or demand, but rather a problem with the assumption that supply and demand would balance within the analysis period. In other words, the system was not in steady state.
This project highlights the complexity of the carbon system in the upper ocean and the broad suite of observational tools necessary to address the carbon budget. The authors make three specific recommendations for improved quantification of the biological carbon pump: including the relevant midwater processes, capturing the range of relevant timescales, and providing redundancy in methodology.
[caption id="attachment_37368" align="alignnone" width="928"]
Assessment of the organic carbon budget in the upper mesopelagic zone during EXPORTS. Estimated individual contributions to supply (left) and demand (right) are provided along with error estimates. Terms with multiple measurement methods (far left, far right) were averaged. The center panel shows the cumulative supply and demand relative to a vertical scale in units of mmol C per (m^2 day). From Stephens et al., 2025.[/caption]
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References:
Stephens, B.M., and 20 co-authors, 2025. An upper-mesopelagic-zone carbon budget for the subarctic North Pacific, Biogeosciences, 22, 3301-3328, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3301-2025.
Siegel, D.A., K.O. Buesseler, M.J. Behrenfeld, C.R. Benitez-Nelson, E. Boss, M.A. Brzezinski, A. Burd, C.A. Carlson, E.A. D’Asaro, S.C. Doney, M.J. Perry, R.H.R. Stanley and D.K. Steinberg, 2016. Prediction of the Export and Fate of Global Ocean Net Primary Production: The EXPORTS Science Plan, Front. Mar. Sci., 3:22, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00022.
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Accounting for Ocean Waves and Current Shear in Wind Stress Parameterization
Ortiz-Suslow et al. (2025) use measurements of direct covariance wind stress, directional wave spectra, and current profiles from the OOI Coastal Endurance Array (Ocean Observatories Initiative) offshore of Newport, Oregon (2017–2023) to test a proposed new general framework for the bulk air-sea momentum flux that directly accounts for vertical current shear and surface waves in quantifying the stress at the interface. Their approach partitions the stress at the interface into viscous skin and (wave) form drag components, each applied to their relevant surface advections, which are quantified using the inertial motions within the sub-surface log layer and the modulation of waves by currents predicted by linear theory, respectively.
Their framework does not alter the overall dependence of momentum flux on mean wind forcing, and they found the largest impacts at relatively low wind speeds. Below 3 m s−1, accounting for sub-surface shear reduced form drag variation by 40–50% as compared to a current-agnostic approach. As compared to a shear-free current, i.e., slab ocean, a 35% reduction in form drag variation was found. At low wind forcing, neglecting the currents led to systematically overestimating the form stress by 20 to 50% — an effect that could not be captured by using the slab ocean approach. Their framework builds on the existing understanding of wind-wave-current interaction, yielding a novel formulation that explicitly accounts for the role of current shear and surface waves in air-sea momentum flux. Ortiz-Suslow et al. find their work holds significant implications for air-sea coupled modeling in general conditions.
In using the Oregon Shelf (CE02SHSM) data, Ortiz-Suslow et al. note, “There are several distinct advantages to using these data for this analysis: (1) the range of the dataset goes back seven years with good temporal coverage, (2) there are co-located wind, wave, and current measurements at hourly intervals for in-depth analysis, and (3) the site is exposed to a wide range of wind, wave, and current conditions. Furthermore, by using this dataset, we take advantage of internal quality data control and processing steps that are standardized across the OOI array network.”
[caption id="attachment_37363" align="alignnone" width="488"] Conceptual diagram highlighting the distinction between defining the relative wind velocity over the (a) slab ocean versus the (b) wavy interface. In the presence of near-surface shear, the relative contributions of viscous skin (Us) and wave form (Uw) must be directly accounted when calculating the relative wind at the base of the sheared wind profile (Figure 30, Ortiz-Suslow et al., 2025).[/caption]
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Reference:
Ortiz-Suslow, D.G., N. Laxague, J-V. Björkqvist, M. Curcic, (2025). Accounting for Ocean Waves and Current Shear in Wind Stress Parameterization. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 191(38), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-025-00926-9
Read MoreThe Regional Cabled Array Seen Through the Eyes of Students
One of the OOI’s greatest strengths is its ability to inspire and train the next generation of ocean scientists through immersive, hands-on research at sea and through the analysis and application of large, complex data sets. Students gain authentic, real-world experience in oceanography—working aboard global-class research vessels utilizing advanced robotic vehicles and learning how to communicate their science effectively to broad and diverse audiences. Through the UW VISIONS at-sea experiential learning program more than 200 students have developed these skills while participating in Regional Cabled Array cruises.
Student outcomes are showcased on Interactiveoceans and span an impressive breadth of scientific inquiry. Recent VISIONS’25 projects include short documentaries demystifying hydrophones and distributed acoustic sensing, genetic analyses of deep-sea organisms, and newly developed technologies to probe the metabolomics of life thriving in the extreme environments of hydrothermal vents. These experiences have translated into numerous senior theses with many students presenting their work at professional scientific conferences.
Among the highlights at Ocean Sciences 2026 conference are VISIONS’24–25 student-led presentations that integrated artificial intelligence and computer vision to quantify benthic communities and spatial ecology at Southern Hydrate Ridge. These innovative analyses revealed new connections between biological patterns and methane seep activity, offering fresh insight into the dynamics of this highly active and rapidly changing environment.
[caption id="attachment_37360" align="alignnone" width="445"] RCA Science Highlight: Student Projects and Engagement Products[/caption]
Read More OOI Participates in Trusted CI Reassessment Pilot
In 2025, OOI participated in a Trusted CI Framework Reassessment Cohort Pilot led by Trusted CI, The NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, a collaborative effort focused on strengthening cybersecurity programs across research cyberinfrastructure organizations. The pilot brought together several NSF-supported facilities to share experiences and assess progress using the Trusted CI Framework.
As part of this reassessment, OOI demonstrated measurable improvement in its cybersecurity program, with higher ratings achieved across the majority of the Trusted CI Framework’s core requirements. The process provided OOI with strategic recommendations to help guide future priorities and continued program development.
Participation in the pilot reflects OOI’s ongoing commitment to building a strong, mission-aligned cybersecurity program and contributing to the broader research infrastructure security community. Trusted CI also recognized OOI’s high level of engagement and the value of its feedback in helping refine the reassessment process for future cohorts.
Learn more about Trusted CI and the reassessment pilot on the Trusted CI blog.
NSF FY 2026-2030 Strategic Plan
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has published its Draft Strategic Plan for the period 2026-2030. It describes the agency’s vision, core values, and the challenges and opportunities it seeks to address over the next five years. NSF seeks public input and will use this feedback to inform the plan’s implementation. NSF welcomes feedback from all interested parties across the science, technology, engineering and mathematics research and education communities.
Please see the associated Dear Colleague Letter (DCL): https://www.nsf.gov/od/updates/nsf-seeks-public-input-on-its-fy-2026-2030-nsf-strategic-plan.
Read the full draft NSF FY 2026–2030 Strategic Plan. Objective 1.4. Support discovery, innovation, and national security through impactful investments in research infrastructure may be of interest for the observing community.
Responses are due no later than Jan. 27, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Deborah S. Kelley awarded the Wallace S. Broecker Medal
Deborah S. Kelley, Professor in the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington, has been awarded the Wallace S. Broecker Medal by The Oceanography Society. This honor recognizes her innovative and impactful contributions to marine geoscience and chemical oceanography, her leadership in interdisciplinary and collaborative research, and her sustained commitment to education and mentorship. Read more from The Oceanography Society.
Read MoreThe OOI Regional Cabled Array (RCA) Through the Eyes of Students
Through the University of Washington VISIONS at-sea education program, an important part of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative Regional Cabled Array (RCA), students and educators have played an active role in sharing the science, technology, and experience of working at sea. Since 2011, participants in the VISIONS program have collaborated with the RCA team to create outreach and engagement projects that highlight their shipboard experiences, explore research questions using RCA data, and showcase the innovative ocean technologies that make sustained seafloor and water column observations possible.
These student-driven projects reflect a wide range of perspectives and creative approaches, offering a unique window into life and learning aboard research vessels while advancing public understanding of ocean science. The collection continues to grow as new cohorts of students and educators join the VISIONS program and complete their work.
Explore examples of student projects and learn more about the Regional Cabled Array by visiting the RCA website.
[caption id="attachment_37336" align="alignnone" width="2560"]
Credit: A. Rose, University of Washington, V’24[/caption]
Read More An underwater volcano off Oregon didn’t erupt in 2025 after all. Why not?
NEW ORLEANS — One year ago, scientists made a surprisingly concrete prediction: Before 2025 was out, they said, Axial volcano — a submerged seamount near Oregon in the Northern Pacific Ocean — would erupt.
That hasn’t happened. But it still might — in 2026. Read more from ScienceNews.
Read MoreA somber mood at science meeting as Trump budget cuts continue
After cuts to federal funding and the firing or early retirement of thousands of government scientists this year, another blow to scientific research landed this week. The Trump administration on Tuesday night announced a plan to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, one of the world’s premier climate and weather science institutions. Read more from the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.
Read MoreA Decade of Air-Sea pCO2 Observations from OOI’s Coastal Endurance Array
OOI has released a newly refined, quality-controlled dataset documenting ten years of air-sea pCO2 measurements from the Coastal Endurance Array off Oregon and Washington. Tracking coastal ocean acidification has been a goal for the array since operations began in 2015, and these long-term moored records now provide one of the most comprehensive views of air and surface seawater pCO2 and supporting environmental variables available in the Pacific Northwest.
This release includes measurements collected at four mooring sites, two off central Washington and two off central Oregon, positioned across the mid-shelf and continental slope to capture both along-shelf and cross-shelf variability. These time series highlight the dominant influence of seasonal and event-scale upwelling, which can elevate near-surface pCO2 to more than three times atmospheric levels and depress surface pH toward the aragonite saturation threshold. The record spans several notable marine heatwaves, offering insight into how warming anomalies interact with upwelling to shape coastal carbonate chemistry.
To build this dataset, OOI conducted extensive post-processing and human-in-the-loop quality control. This work involved correcting subtle sensor drifts and offsets, restoring usable data that had been removed for fixable issues, and checking the measurements against historical records, bottle samples, collocated instruments, and engineering diagnostics. All measurements were then merged onto an hourly time base to create a consistent, analysis-ready product suitable for research, modeling, and education.
In addition to pCO2, the dataset includes sea surface temperature, salinity, wind speed, and several derived carbonate system variables, such as estimated total alkalinity, and air–sea CO2 fluxes. These enhancements make it possible to explore marine carbonate system parameters without additional processing and allow users to evaluate physical drivers of variability.
The data are available in both NetCDF and Zarr formats for each mooring site, with updated metadata and documentation. In the near future, we plan to expand on this dataset to include inshore pCO2, near surface pH, and subsurface measurements.
For access to this dataset and all OOI community data products, visit the OOI collection in Zenodo.
[caption id="attachment_37284" align="alignnone" width="935"]
Figure 1. Cross-comparing the mooring observations against the discrete samples and SOCAT v2025 dataset.[/caption]
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[caption id="attachment_37286" align="alignnone" width="624"] Figure 2. Time series of observations at the Oregon Shelf Surface Mooring (CE02SHSM) of sea surface temperature, salinity, estimated total alkalinity, air and surface pCO2, ocean to atmosphere CO2 flux, and 10 m, normalized wind speed. Black dots and stars are discrete samples collected during mooring maintenance cruises. Dark red dots are from the SOCAT v2025 dataset. Light grey lines in the surface temperature and wind speed records are from the NDBC Stonewall Bank (46050) Mooring.[/caption]
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References:
Bakker, Dorothee C. E.; Alin, Simone R.; Aramaki, Takafumi; Barbero, Leticia; Bates, Nicholas; Gkritzalis, Thanos; Jones, Steve D.; Kozyr, Alex; Lauvset, Siv K.; Macovei, Vlad A.; Metzl, Nicolas; Munro, David R.; Nakaoka, Shin-ichiro; O’Brien, Kevin M.; Olsen, Are; Pierrot, Denis; Steinhoff, Tobias; Sullivan, Kevin F.; Sutton, Adrienne J.; Sweeney, Colm; Wada, Chisato; Wanninkhof, Rik; Akl, John; Arbilla, Lisandro A.; Azetsu-Scott, Kumiko; Battisti, Roman; Beatty, Cory M.; Becker, Meike; Benoit-Cattin, Alice; Berghoff, Carla F.; Bittig, Henry C.; Bonin, Jennifer A.; Bott, Randy; Bozzano, Roberto; Burger, Eugene F.; Brunetti, Fabio; Cantoni, Carolina; Castelli, Giuliano; Chambers, Don P.; Chierici, Melissa; Corbo, Andrea; Cronin, Margot; Cross, Jessica N.; Currie, Kim I.; Dentico, Carlotta; Emerson, Steven R.; Enochs, Ian C.; Enright, Matt P.; Enyo, Kazutaka; Ericson, Ylva; Evans, Wiley; Fay, Amanda R.; Feely, Richard A.; Fragiacomo, Elena; Fransson, Agneta; Gehrung, Martina; Giani, Michele; Glockzin, Michael; Hamnca, Siyabulela; Holodkov, Nikola; Hoppema, Mario; Ibánhez, J. Severino P.; Kadono, Koji; Kamb, Linus; Kralj, Martina; Kristensin, Tor O.; Laudicella, V. Alessandro; Lefèvre, Nathalie; Leseurre, Coraline; Lo Monaco, Claire; Maenner Jones, Stacy; Maenza, Reinaldo A.; McAuliffe, Anna M.; Mdokwana, Baxolele; Monacci, Natalie M.; Musielewicz, Sylvia; Neill, Craig; Newberger, Tim; Nojiri, Yukihiro; Ohman, Mark D.; Ólafsdóttir, Sólveig R.; Olivier, Léa; Omar, Abdirahman M.; Osborne, John; Pensieri, Sara; Petersen, Wilhelm; Plueddemann, Albert J.; Rehder, Gregor; Roden, Nicholas P.; Rutgersson, Anna; Sallée, Jean-Baptiste; Sanders, Richard; Sarpe, Dick; Schirnik, Carsten; Schlitzer, Reiner; Send, Uwe; Skjelvan, Ingunn; Sutherland, Stewart, C.; T’Jampens, Michiel; Tamsitt, Veronica; Telszewski, Maciej; Theetaert, Hannelore; Tilbrook, Bronte; Trull, Tom; Tsanwani, Mutshutshu; Van de Velde, Sebastiaan; Van Heuven, Steven M. A. C.; Veccia, Martín H.; Voynova, Yoana G.; Weller, Robert A.; Williams, Nancy L. (2025). Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas Database Version 2025 (SOCATv2025) (NCEI Accession 0304549). NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.25921/648f-fv35.
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