Mapping the role of diazotrophs in the carbon cycle
Diazotrophic microorganisms help regulate the world’s marine productivity by converting nitrogen and contributing to carbon sinks, but we don’t know how much diazotroph-derived carbon is exported to the deep ocean. The EU-funded HOPE project seeks to find out, enabling better predictions about the ocean’s role in sequestering CO2 and mitigating climate change. Using single-cell isotopic techniques, researchers will examine this prokaryotic carbon pump to map its transient and seasonal features. An experimental water column will also allow researchers to determine how diazotrophs aggregate, sink and are remineralised, and an autonomous measuring platform will monitor how environmental drivers control the efficiency of the pump. This will result in new global estimates for carbon exported by diazotrophs.
