Marine and coastal ecosystems

Marine and coastal ecosystems sit at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and physics, where microscopic organisms like phytoplankton drive the oceanic carbon cycle by converting dissolved carbon dioxide into organic matter that eventually sinks, locking carbon away from the atmosphere. Nutrient availability shapes this productivity at every scale, and when excess nutrients from agriculture and sewage wash into coastal waters, the resulting eutrophication can fuel harmful algal blooms that deplete oxygen and devastate marine life. As global warming alters ocean temperature, stratification, and circulation, researchers are working to understand how these changes will shift biological productivity and the ocean's capacity to absorb atmospheric carbon. Central open questions include how dissolved organic matter accumulates and degrades across ocean basins, and whether warming-driven shifts in phytoplankton communities will weaken or strengthen the biological pump that keeps carbon out of the atmosphere.

Works

154,897

Total citations

3,659,771

Keywords

Dissolved Organic MatterEutrophicationHarmful Algal BloomsOceanic Carbon CyclePhytoplanktonGlobal Warming