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DCU PhD student sets sail to monitor climate change in ocean water
DCU PhD student sets sail to monitor climate change in ocean water

DCU PhD student sets sail to monitor climate change in ocean water

A PhD student at Dublin City University is on board the James Cook research vessel as part of a major international effort to monitor climate linked properties of ocean water across the Atlantic.

Daniel Kerr, a researcher at DCU’s School of Chemical Sciences, funded by iCRAG and supervised by Dr Brian Kelleher, has joined researchers from the National Oceanography Centre on the vessel which departed from Fort Lauderdale, USA, on 19th January and will travel 6,000 kilometres over a 43-day period arriving at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain. 

The carbon system, physical oceanography, marine biogeochemistry and ecosystems will be documented during the voyage, allowing for the collection of data concerning carbon, nutrients, oxygen and transient tracers covering vast swathes of the ocean’s surface and basins. 

This will provide valuable information adding to our understanding of large-scale ocean water property distribution, and to the question of how human-driven changes are affecting the processes which govern ocean dynamics.

Commenting on the importance of the project, Dr Brian Kelleher said: "The information on carbon cycling accumulated during this expedition will be vital if we are to understand ocean processes such as the North Atlantic Drift and how it may change under a warming climate.”

The research cruise forms part of the National Oceanography Centre Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS) and the Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP).