Belgian Polar Platform - Research - The research groups

The research groups - Oceans

University of Liège (ULg)
Unité d’Océanographie Chimique
Promoter: Dr. Borges Alberto

Presentation

One of the most challenging issues addressed to the oceanographic community is to budget atmospheric CO₂ fluxes over the oceans. The open ocean has a major role in the global CO2 cycle, since it absorbs about 29% of the anthropogenic CO₂ inputs (that contribute to 57% of the greenhouse forcing among all radiative gases). So far, one of the best methods is to compile worldwide measurements of the partial pressure of CO₂ (pCO₂) and to compute related CO2 fluxes using wind speed and well-constrained gas transfer velocity relationships. However, due to the large spatio-temporal variability of pCO2, budgeting CO₂ fluxes requires huge data sets which cover satisfactorily both spatial and temporal changes.
The Chemical Oceanography Unit of the University of Liège aims to fill two crucial gaps in the present knowledge of global CO2 fluxes: the ignored Coastal Ocean and the remote Southern Ocean thought as the "last oceanic sink". In parallel, the Chemical Oceanography Unit also investigates the potential feed-backs between the oceanic biota and climate and their impact on global CO₂ cycling.

Activities

Apart from pioneering research on dissolved inorganic carbon dynamics in coral reefs, estuaries and coastal area, the Chemical Oceanography Unit carries out research devoted to the development of innovative CO₂ measurement units. Versatile systems are essential to generate large and long-term data-sets to investigate seasonal variations of CO₂ in such extremely dynamic environments and long-term patterns in strongly human impacted ecosystems.

Main field of activity in polar regions

BELCANTO 2 - Assessing the sensitivity of the Southern Ocean’s biological pump to climate change
SIBClim - Sea Ice Biogeochemistry in a CLimate change perspective
BELCANTO 3 - Integrated Study of Southern Ocean Biogeochemistry and Climate Interactions in the Anthropocene

Research Group Team

Leader: Dr. Alberto Borges
Post doctorate researcher: Dr Bruno Delille

Publication list

Peer reviewed papers

Borges A.V., B. Delille & M. Frankignoulle (2005)
Budgeting sinks and sources of CO₂ in the coastal ocean: Diversity of ecosystems counts
Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L14601, doi:10.1029/2005GL023053)

Rangama Y., J. Boutin ,.J. Etcheto, L. Merlivat, T. Takahashi, B. Delille, M. Frankignoulle, & D.C.E. Bakker, Variability of net air-sea CO₂ flux inferred from in situ and satellite measurements in the Southern Ocean south of Tasmania and New Zealand, Journal of Geophysical Research, 110(C9), C09005, doi:10.1029/2004JC002619

Borges A.V., B. Delille & M. Frankignoulle (2005) Budgeting sinks and sources of CO₂ in the coastal ocean: Diversity of ecosystems counts Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L14601, doi:10.1029/2005GL023053)

Jacquet S.H.M., F. Dehairs, D.B. Cardinal, J. Navez & B. Delille. Barium distribution controlled by hydrological and biogeochemical processes: results from a Southern Ocean Frontal System [Crozet-Kerguelen Basin] Marine Chemistry, 95(3-4): 149-162

Kostianoy A.G., A.I. Ginzburg, M. Frankignoulle & B. Delille. Fronts in the Southern Indian Ocean as inferred from satellite sea surface temperature data. Journal of Marine Systems. 45(1-2): 55-73. doi:10.1016/j.jmarsys.2003.09.004

Pelletier E., D. Delille & B. Delille, 2004. Crude oil bioremediation in sub-Antarctic intertidal sediments: chemistry and toxicity of oiled residues. Marine Environmental Research, 57(4):311-327, doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2003.07.001

Kostianoy A.G., A.I. Ginzburg, M. Frankignoulle & B.Delille, 2003. Fronts and Mesoscale Variability in the Southern Indian Ocean as Inferred from the TOPEX/POSEIDON and ERS-2 Altimetry Data. Oceanology 43(5):632-642

Fiala M., B. Delille, C. Dubreuil, E. Kopczynska, K. Leblanc, J. Morvan, B. Quéguiner, S. Blain, C. Cailliau,P. Conan, R. Corvaisier, M. Denis, M. Frankignoulle, L. Oriol, S. Roy. 2003. Mesoscale surface distribution of biogeochemical characteristics associated with a frontal system in the Crozet Basin (Southern Indian Ocean) during austral summer 1999. Marine Ecology Progress Series 249, 1–14

Delille D., E. Pelletier, B. Delille & F. Coulon, 2003. Effect of nutrient enrichments on the bacterial assemblage of diesel or crude oil contaminated Antarctic soils. Polar Record 39, 1–10.

Delille D., B. Delille & E. Pelletier. 2002. Effectiveness of bioremediation of crude oil contaminated subAntarctic intertidal sediment: the microbial response. Microbial Ecology 44, 118-126.

Delille B., D. Delille, M. Fiala, C. Prevost & M.Frankignoulle, 2000. Seasonal changes of pCO2 over a subantartic Macrocystis kelp bed. Polar Biology 23, 706-716.

Delille D. & B. Delille, 2000. Field observations on the variability of crude oil impact on bacterial assemblages from subAntarctic intertidal sediments. Marine Environmental Research, 49, 403-417.

Poster and oral presentations

Lannuzel D., V. Schoemann, J. de Jong, J.-L. Tison, B. Delille and L. Chou, Iron Distribution in Antarctic Pack Ice, AGU ocean sciences meeting, 20-24 February 2006, Honolulu, Hawaï, U.S.A. poster.

Tison, J.-L., T. Mock, D. Thomas, A. Krell, S. Papadimitriou, V. Verbeke, B. Delille & G. Dieckmann, A Comparative Study of O2 Measurements in Experimental (Interice II) and Natural (ISPOL, Western Weddell Sea, Antarctica) First Year Sea Ice. International Glaciological Society Symposium on Sea Ice, 5 - 9 December 2005, Dunedin, New-Zeland, poster.

Tison, J.-L, T. Worby, B. Delille, V. Schoemann, J. de Jong, D. Lannuzel & C. Haas, Thermodynamic evolution of summer first year sea ice properties at ISPOL (Western Weddell Sea, Antarctica): implications for biological activity and air-ice-sea gas exchanges International Glaciological Society Symposium on Sea Ice, 5 - 9 December 2005, Dunedin, New-Zeland, oral presentation.

Delille B., V. Schoemann , C. Lancelot , D. Lannuzel , J.T.M. De Jong , B. Tilbrook, D. Delille , A.V. Borges & J.-L. Tison, 2005, What controls pCO2 dynamics in Antarctic sea ice and related air-ice CO₂ fluxes? International Glaciological Society Symposium on Sea Ice, 5 - 9 December 2005, Dunedin, New-Zeland, poster.

Bakker D., M. Nielsdottír, J. Allen, B. Delille, N. Metzl, A. Poisson, R. Pollard, R. Sanders & H. Venables, Controls on the oceanic CO₂ sink near the Crozet Plateau in the Southern Ocean. 7th International Carbon Conference, 25-30 September 2005, Boulder, Colorado, poster

Delille B., A.J. Trevena, V. Schoemann, C. Lancelot, D. Lannuzel, M.-L. Sauvée, J. de Jong, B. Tilbrook, M. Frankignoulle, A.V. Borges & J.-L. Tison, Carbon dioxide dynamics in Antarctic pack ice and related air-ice CO₂ fluxes, XXXVII International Liège Colloquium on Ocean Dynamics, Gas Transfer At Water Surfaces, 2-6 May 2005, Liège, Belgium, keynote

Delille B., A.J. Trevena, V. Schoemann, C. Lancelot, D. Lannuzel, M.-L. Sauvée, J. De Jong, B. Tilbrook, V. Lytle, D. Delille, M. Frankignoulle, A.V. Borges & J.-L. Tison, Carbon Dioxide Dynamics and related Air-Ice fluxes in Antarctic Sea Ice, Gordon Research Conference on Polar Marine Science, 13-18 March 2005, Ventura, USA., poster

Delille B., J.-L. Tison, A.J. Trevena, V. Schoemann, D. Lannuzel, M.-L. Sauvée, B. Tilbrook, V. Lytle, M. Frankignoulle, A.V. Borges & C. Lancelot, Carbon Dioxide Dynamics in Antarctic Pack Ice and Transfer at the Ice-Sea and Air-Ice Interface, SOLAS open science conference, 13-16 October 2004, Halifax, Canada, poster

Delille B., A.J. Trevena, D. Lannuzel, M.-L. Sauvée, B. Tilbrook, V. Lytle, M. Frankignoulle, A.V. Borges & J.-L. Tison. Carbon dioxide dynamics in the Antartic pack ice and transfer at ice-sea and air-ice interfaces, European Geosciences Union, 1st General Assembly, Nice, France, 25 - 30 April 2004, oral presentation

Project reports

Dehairs F., Lancelot C., André L., Frankignoulle M., Dellersnijder E., Becquevort S., Cardinal D., Cattaldo T., Delille B., Elskens M., Fagel N., Gosse H., Hannon E., Probst G., Schoemann V., Kopczynska E. & A. Kostianoy (2003) An integrated approach to assess carbon dynamics in the Southern Ocean. Belgian Scientific Research Programme on the Antarctic Phase 4, vol 1: Marine biota and Global change, +pp 160

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