National Basic Research Program
Principal Investigator: Nianzhi Jiao
Duration: 2013-2017
Budget (10K）: 2900
Project Number：2013CB955700
Climate change has become a global concern, which is currently being exacerbated by anthropogenic CO2 emissions. China has overtaken the United States as the world's biggest CO2 producer, resulting in a national need to reduce carbon emissions or increase the carbon sink. The ocean is the biggest carbon pool on the earth, with great capacity for carbon sequestration. The known main carbon storage mechanisms in the ocean include the solubility pump and the biological pump, which have greatly advanced our knowledge of carbon cycling. Yet, many uncertainties remain regarding carbon sequestration in the ocean. The newly proposed mechanism -- the Microbial Carbon Pump (MCP) (Jiao et al., 2010, Nature Reviews Microbiology) underlines the microbial transformation of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from labile (L) DOC to recalcitrant (R) DOC that can stay in the ocean for thousands of years. This project aims to understand the key processes and mechanisms of the MCP at the molecular, ecological and biogeochemical levels, as well as the environmental consequences of the MCP at the modern and geo-time scales. The majority of this research includes: active and passive pathways of RDOC production through the MCP; molecular and environmental regulatory mechanisms of RDOC production; dynamics of the MCP across environmental gradients; evidences for carbon sequestration by the MCP in the earth's history; and potential MCP approaches for carbon sink enhancement in coastal oceans.
Through interdisciplinary exchanges among biologists, chemists and geologists, and through comparative studies between ancient and modern marine environments, this project will elucidate MCP processes and mechanisms, assess the potentials of carbon storage in Chinese coastal waters, establish scenario models for marine DOC dynamics under global warming situations, and provide theoretical and technical foundations for engineering ocean carbon sequestration in the future.
