A PhD student at Dublin City University is on board the James Cook research vessel as part of a major international effort to monitor climate linked properties of ocean water across the Atlantic.

Daniel Kerr, a researcher at DCU’s School of Chemical Sciences, funded by iCRAG and supervised by Dr Brian Kelleher, has joined researchers from the National Oceanography Centre on the vessel which departed from Fort Lauderdale, USA, on January 19, and will travel 6,000km over a 43-day period arriving at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.

Collection of data concerning carbon, nutrients, oxygen and transient tracers

The carbon system, physical oceanography, marine biogeochemistry and ecosystems will be documented during the voyage, allowing for the collection of data concerning carbon, nutrients, oxygen and transient tracers covering vast swathes of the ocean’s surface and basins.

This will provide valuable information adding to our understanding of large-scale ocean water property distribution, and to the question of how human-driven changes are affecting the processes which govern ocean dynamics.

Dr Brian Kelleher said: "The information on carbon cycling accumulated during this expedition will be vital if we are to understand ocean processes such as the North Atlantic Drift and how it may change under a warming climate.”

The research cruise forms part of the National Oceanography Centre Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science (CLASS) and the Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP).