VITALS

1. VITALS Ventilation, Interactions and Transports Across the Labrador Sea Photo courtesy Department of Fisheries and Oceans Paul Myers Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences University of Alberta

2. VITALS is a Pan-Canadian Initiative

3. Labrador Sea The Labrador Sea is one of the few oceanic regions where the deep ocean exchanges gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide (CO2) directly with the atmosphere. This gas exchange, driven by wintertime deep convection is the ocean's "deep breathing" and the Labrador Sea can be viewed as a lung in the Earth System.

4. VITALS has an Over-Arching Research Goal • Research Goal:To understand and model the functioning and vulnerability of the Labrador Sea as a key component of the earth’s climate system including its uptake of oxygen, anthropogenic carbon, and exchange of heat with the atmosphere • Working Hypothesis: Deep convection in the Labrador Sea, which allows for exchange of oxygen and natural and anthropogenic carbon to the deep ocean, is sensitive to the warming that is taking place at high latitudes. Validating and quantifying this sensitivity is central to our research network and also the broader community of climate change researchers and policy makers interested in characterizing, and possibly minimizing, the effects of global climate change

5. VITALS has 3 Scientific Themes • Theme 1: Breathing: How does the Labrador Sea take inputs from the Atlantic and a melting Arctic, modify them via atmospheric exchange and local physical and biogeochemical processes to thereby influence the export products that influence the global ocean and climate? • Theme 2: Horizontal Exchange: How does lateral boundary/interior exchange, especially of freshwater, control and potentially limit the “breathing”? We will then represent these processes in high resolution eddy-permitting models. • Theme 3: Climate Representation and Future Evolution: How can we improve the ability of high-resolution numerical models to represent this "breathing" through its controlling processes, and its sensitivity to climatic change?

6. VITALS has 6 Implementation Themes • I) Fixed in-situ Sampling (Lead: Doug Wallace) • II) Mobile in-situ Sampling (Lead: Brad de Young) • III) Biological Processes (Lead: Jean-Eric Tremblay) • IV) Gases (Lead: Roberta Hamme) • V) Historical Analysis (Lead: Jamie Palter) • VI) Numerical Modelling (Lead: Paul Myers)

7. Theme I: Fixed in-situ Sampling Lead: Doug Wallace (Dalhousie) Investigators: B. de Young (Memorial), R. Hamme (UVIC). J. Klymak (UVIC), B. Ruddick (Dal) Partners:Uwe Send (Scripps), Igor Yashayaev (DFO), Johannes Karstensen, Arne Körtzinger, Martin Visbeck (GEOMAR), Rolls-Royce Canada • Will determine the annual cycle of key dissolved gases (and relevant physical parameters) in the Labrador Sea using advanced sensor-based technologies and state-of-the-art discrete measurements (SeaCycler and moorings) • Will relate the temporal and vertical changes of the concentration and inventory of key dissolved gases to key controls including air-sea gas exchange, mixing dynamics (lateral and vertical), restratification, and biological production/consumption

8. Theme II: Mobile in-situ Sampling Lead: B. de Young (Memorial) Investigators: J. Klymak (Victoria), J. Palter (McGill), B. Ruddick, D. Wallace, K. Azetsu-Scott (Dal), R. Bachmayer, E. Edinger (Memorial), C. Hillaire-Marcel (UQAM) Partners: E. Head, I. Yashayaev (DFO), RSI Scientific Inc. • Will characterize the spatial scales of convection and re-stratification in the Labrador Sea. • Will examine the horizontal exchange influencing properties at the central mooring. • Will explore the impact of frontal dynamics on phytoplankton biomass and export productivity • Enhanced understanding of lateral processes that drive mixing in the central Labrador Sea, which will lead directly to model improvements, as convection is very sensitive to the parameterization of unresolved lateral processes • 3 Gliders, 5 EM-APEX Floats, Argo Floats, all also with biogeochemical sensors, as well as ship based sampling

9. Theme III: Biological Processes Lead: Jean-Eric Tremblay (Laval) Investigators: R. Maranger (Montreal), M. Babin (Laval), S. Bélanger (UQAR), K. Azetsu-Scott (Dalhousie/DFO) Partners: N. Cassar (Duke), J. Granger (U. Connecticut), M. Levasseur, C. Lovejoy (Laval), B. Li, E. Head, I. Yashayev, J. Anning (DFO) • Will work to understand how climate-sensitive physical processes (e.g. warming, convection and restratification, nutrient supply) affect rates of primary production, respiration and key nitrogen cycling steps along the east-west gradient in water properties across the Labrador Sea • Will provide direct rate measurements of major biological processes affecting carbon, oxygen, and N2O flux in the Labrador Sea, integrating remote sensing with ship base measurements • Advances in our fundamental understanding of the interactions between the biological and solubility pumps

10. Theme IV: Gases Lead: Roberta Hamme (Uvic) Investigators: D. Wallace (Dalhousie), K. Azetsu-Scott (Dalhousie/DFO), R. Maranger (Montreal) Collaborators: D. Gilbert (DFO) • Will determine how competing processes control the carbon and oxygen budgets of newly formed deep-water. • Will characterize the concentrations and air-sea fluxes of key greenhouse gases • Will make dissolved gas measurements across all platforms including providing calibration data for autonomous sensors • Realistically incorporate the key processes into numerical models to allow projections for other years

11. Theme V: Historical Analysis Lead: Jamie Palter (McGill): Investigators: M. Kienast, B. Ruddick (Dalhousie), J-E. Tremblay (Laval), A. de Vernal, C.H. Marcel (UQAM), E. Edinger (Memorial), R. Francois (UBC), P. Myers (Alberta) Collaborators: I. Yashayaev (DFO) • Will use existing measurements, notably those collected as part of DFO's monitoring programs, to place the observations collected during our process study into a broader spatial and temporal context and document natural variability. • Will provide data for comparison with numerical simulations to test physical and biogeochemical models. • Will document decadal variability in water mass properties (and oxygen availability) from proxy-records in corals and sediments Builds on DFO’s Historical Monitoring Program AR7W, Argo

12. Theme VI: Numerical Modelling Lead: Paul Myers (Alberta) Investigators: E. Demirov, Brad de Young (Memorial), M. Flynn, B. Sutherland (Alberta),E. Galbraith, J. Palter (McGill), A. Scott (Waterloo) Collaborators: F. Davidson, Y. Lu (DFO), G. Smith (EC) • Will improve the ability of high-resolution numerical models to represent gas cycles through their controlling processes and their sensitivity to climatic change. • Will provide an understanding of the climate sensitivity of the “breathing”, convection, re-stratification, and biogeochemical processes studied through the observational program • We will examine parameterizing the key results so that they can be represented in coarser resolution coupled climate models, through the use of filling box models and the NS alpha model. • Eddy Resolving: 1/12 degree NEMO • Eddy Permitting: ¼ degree NEMO • Observing System Simulation Experiment(s) and Data Assimilation • Biogeochemical: BLING • Filling Box Models: • NS alpha-model:

13. FISST (Fixed In-Situ Sampling Team) • Deployment of Three (3) Moorings • V1TALS – SeaCycler Mooring • V2TALS – MetBuoy Mooring • V3TALS – Short Deep Sea Mooring (deep-water exchange- Igor Yashayev) • Involvement with • K1 – Kiel/GEOMAR Observation Mooring (56.5°N, 52.6°W) • Ocean Observatories Initiative • (OOI) V1TALS, V2TALS and K1 moorings will form a triangular array with 20 km spacing with one side along the AR7W line and the V2TALS in the direction where more events are likely to occur.

14. “ SeaCycler “ Moored Oceanographic Platform in deep water Surface-Piercing Profiler Satellite Communication: -Semi-real_Time Data… - …. from “Whole Mooring” - Remote Control Large Sensor Package: ~ 8 Sensors One-Year Deployments: 400 to 1200 Profiles Surface Avoidance, Compliant Control , and more …. - Semi-Real-Time Data …. 400 to 1200 Profiles

15. V1TALS - SeaCycler SeaCycler SBE19 ControsHydroC (pCO2) ECO Triplet-wB (Fluorometer) SUNA (Nitrate) SBE63 (ODO) Below SeaCycler SBE 37-IMP-CTP-ODO x5

16. V1TALS (SeaCycler) Mooring

17. EnviroCan - MetBuoy • 3m Discus Buoy • Bulk Meteorology • Near Surface Instruments ControsHydroC (pCO2) ECO Triplet-wB (Fluorometer) SUNA (Nitrate) SeaFET (pH) HGTD (Gas Tension) • SBE 37-IMP-CTP-ODO (MicroCAT w/O2) x6-8 (at different depths)

18. V2tals (MetBuoy) Mooring

19. Short Deep Sea Mooring (deep-water exchange) Igor Yashayev (BIO) DO 2012

20. When • Kiel’s K1 this Spring 2014 • V3tals Spring 2014 • V1tals (SeaCycler Mooring) Spring 2015 • V2tals (MetBuoy Mooring) Spring 2015