Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research

NoSE_North Sea Atlantic Exchange

The biologically productive North Sea impacts the global climate through exchange of carbon and nutrients with the Atlantic Ocean. The North Sea is a very productive coastal sea. A lot of carbon dioxide (CO2) could be taken up through physical, biological, and sedimentological processes. But much is still unknown about the exact fate of the carbon. Dutch scientists will investigate how big the role of the North Sea really is in the uptake of carbon.

Continental shelf seas represent a small fraction of the ocean’s surface area (<10%), but as they connect the land to the open ocean, they are disproportionally important in global carbon and nutrient cycles. The North Sea is a very productive coastal sea and a lot of carbon dioxide (CO2) is taken up and buried through physical, biological, and sedimentological processes, however the long‐term fate of this carbon is largely unknown. In the NoSE project, a multidisciplinary consortium will determine the past, present, and future role of the North Sea in the uptake of carbon, by constraining the exchange of carbon and other essential nutrients between the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

This exchange will be studied in the Norwegian Trench, the main outflow route to the Atlantic Ocean and the main area where sediments accumulate in the North Sea. In the Norwegian Trench, we will quantify the transport and transformation processes that control carbon and nutrient exchange between the land, shelf sea and the open ocean. Combining new, state‐of‐the‐art observations with process studies and reconstructions from sediment archives, we will provide an improved understanding of carbon and nutrient fluxes and the drivers of their variability across timescales from weeks to millennia. Observational results will feed into small‐scale, regional and global ocean models to investigate how environmental and climate change may affect the future cycling of carbon and nutrients within the North Sea. Currently, the North Sea experiences pressures such as overfishing, acidification, warming, eutrophication and deoxygenation. Understanding how these pressures affect carbon and nutrient cycling is crucial to assess the wider implications of environmental change in the coming decades for the North Sea and wider Atlantic Ocean and will also help to determine the changing biogeochemical interactions between other shelf seas and the global ocean.

Schematic overview of the processes to be investigated in the Norwegian Trench controlling carbon and nutrient cycling and some of the techniques to be deployed by NoSE  a. Glider, b. Mooring, c. Lander, d. Piston corer, e. Remotely operated vehicle (ROV)
Expeditions
NoSE in the media
Project information
Funder:
Netherlands Organization for S…
Duration:
1 Oct 2022 - 31 Dec 2027
Partners
  • Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
  • Helmholtz Center Hereon, Germany
  • Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut (KNMI)
  • National Oceanography Centre (NOC), United Kingdom
  • Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), UK
  • Stichting Deltares, The Netherlands
  • University of Bergen, Norway
  • University of East Anglia, UK
  • University of Groningen (RUG), The Netherlands
  • Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Meet the team

 
Hennekam, Rick
Tenure track Scientist
 
Humphreys, Matthew
Senior Scientist
 
Kraal, Peter
Senior Scientist
 
Meer van der, Marcel
Senior Scientist
 
Middag, Rob
Research Leader
 
Mienis, Furu
Senior Scientist
 
Molen van der, Johan
Senior Scientist
 
Schouten, Stefan
Senior Research Leader
 
Soetaert, Karline
Research Leader
 
Adler, Marina
PhD student
 
Kranawetter, Lucia
PhD student
 
Temmerman, Daan
PhD student

Linked projects

NoSE - WP2 Benthic processes
Supervisor
Furu Mienis
Funder
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
Project duration
1 Oct 2022 - 31 Dec 2027
NoSE - WP3 Paleo reconstructions
Supervisor
Peter Kraal
Funder
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
Project duration
1 Oct 2022 - 31 Dec 2027