Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) are widespread oceanographic features expanding due to global warming. There is increasing evidence that ocean warming trends will decrease dissolved oxygen concentrations, causing hypoxic boundary layer expansion that impacts the global carbon cycle, marine nutrient cycles and the climate system. To properly diagnose these transitions, this project launches a systems-level investigation of microbial community responses to OMZ expansion, charting the gene expression patterns of indigenous microbial communities found in coastal and open ocean OMZs in the eastern Subarctic Pacific Ocean as part of an ongoing time series program monitoring microbial community responses to changing levels of water column oxygen deficiency.
Principal Investigators: Steven Hallam, University of British Columbia, Canada
Program: CSP 2011