Direct measurement of marine carbon sequestration
The ocean is the Earth’s largest natural carbon sink, sequestering over a third of human-generated CO₂ emissions every year. For decades, scientists have relied on indirect models to estimate this process, leaving a major gap in scientific understanding of the ocean’s biological pump. This project aims to revolutionize how carbon sequestration is measured by directly tracking the sinking of the tiny, organic particles that contain carbon into the deep ocean (marine snow). Building off previous research by the Prakash Lab, the team will expand their dataset across multiple oceans and build and test an underwater imaging instrument to track particles at various depths. This work has major implications for improving climate model accuracy and validating commercial carbon removal methods.