Overarching Goals of Project OASIS:
Advance our understanding of the current increasing anthropogenic CO2 crisis affecting our tropical marine environments.
Evaluate the historical fluxes of CO2 into the ocean and changes in climate before and since the Industrial Revolution.
Applying state-of-the-art stable isotope techniques to reconstruct past seawater pH recorded in long-living tropical corals.
Module 1: South Pacific Convergence Zone
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Understanding the baseline and natural pH variability in the southwestern Pacific.
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Investigating the long-term seawater pH evolution due to increasing atmospheric CO2 in the SPCZ and its relationship to climate parameters such as sea surface temperature.
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Identification of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) impact on seawater pH variability in the south Pacific.
Module 2: Indonesian Throughflow
- Reconstruction of seawater pH from the only low-latitude inter-ocean connection (Pacific and Indian Oceans) and its relationship to large-scale ocean heat transfer.
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Comparison of baseline seawater pH values between the Pacific and the Indian Ocean.
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Identification and verification of ENSO impact on seawater pH in the ITF region.
Module 3: Caribbean Sea
Understanding seawater pH variability in the region with the highest estimated uptake of anthropogenic CO2 in the tropics.
First high-resolution stable isotope-pH calibration and reconstruction of seawater pH in the Caribbean Sea.
Examine the relationship of seawater pH change and the longer-term natural cycles of climate oscillation in the greater Atlantic Ocean.
Module 4: Model Simulations and Global Synthesis
Intra- and inter-basin observations and comparisons of oceanic pH and seawater chemistry at the global scale.
Improved understanding of coral proxy-based results relative to large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate simulation results.
Verify multi-coral-based pH reconstructions to previously published coral calcification modelling results.