Portuguese scientist joins Arctic expedition on ocean carbon storage

Catarina V. Guerreiro, a researcher at Lisbon's Faculty of Sciences (MARE/ARNET and IDL), is the only Portuguese scientist aboard the international IMAGE expedition studying carbon cycling in the Greenland Sea. Running from Reykjavik to Svalbard between 2 August and 3 September, the mission examines how ocean dynamics and plankton communities affect the biological carbon pump, which moves carbon from surface waters to the deep ocean. Guerreiro focuses on calcifying plankton such as coccolithophores. The team, drawn from Spain, Germany, Denmark, France, the UK and China, hopes the findings will help predict how a rapidly changing Arctic will affect carbon storage and marine ecosystems.