RemOte Sensing of COccolithophores and their influence on shelf sea CO₂ sinks
Project Coordinator(s):
Griet Neukermans
Co-Investigator(s):
Alexandre Castagna, Lisa Calus, Timotheus Fügl
Project Partners:
VLIZ-PPFC (PIs: Peter Landschützer, Alizée Roobaert), VLIZ-INFRA (PI: Thanos Gkritzalis)
ULiège-COU (PI: Bruno Delille)
ULiège-GHER (PI: Aida Alvera-Azcarate)
International Project Partner(s):
NIVA (PIs: Andrew King, Sabine Marty)
Project start and end date:
12/2025-04/2030
Funding:
The overall objective of ROCOCO is to examine the influence of coccolithophore calcification on CO₂ uptake in the North Sea and Barents Sea using novel in situ and remote sensing techniques.
The main research questions ROCOCO aims to address are:
1) To what extent does coccolithophore-driven calcification alter pCO₂ levels and localized air-sea CO₂ fluxes?;
2) What are the implications of coccolithophore calcification for the annual CO₂ sink capacity of these shelf seas?;
3) What is the long-term variability in calcification-induced pCO₂ increases and annual CO₂ sinks over the satellite data record (1997-present)?
ROCOCO bridges state-of-the-art machine-learning ocean carbonate chemistry reconstructions with novel remote sensing data products to advance scientific understanding of ocean CO2 sink variability in response to climate change, and addressses critical knowledge gaps on the role of coccolithophore calcification in shelf-sea carbon and alkalinity cycling.
