Luis Greiffenhagen

Carbon Budget of Cold-Water Coral Mound Ecosystems

My PhD project aims to enhance the data situation on carbonate accumulation of Cold-Water Coral Mound Ecosystems through time and space, work from fine-scale investigation all the way towards a regional to global/ocean-basin wide estimate of the carbon budget, and thus, improve the understanding of their role within the carbon cycle as a potentially significant marine carbonate factory.

This is of great importance, as cold-water coral mounds should be represented adequately in marine carbon(ate) budget calculations, and more knowledge on their overall role within the global carbon cycle is needed. In a changing ocean, understanding key sedimentary processes on the seabed, the functional significance of ecosystems, and their relation to the carbon cycle, is crucial.

Cold-Water Coral Mounds have been referred to as carbon sinks, since they remove a significant amount of carbonate from the seawater, use it for building their skeletal framework and store it in the lithosphere for millions of years. However, the quantification of this process comes with several methodological challenges and the understanding of their overall contribution is still rather limited. To understand these processes, appropiate upscaling and more data on carbonate accumulation is needed - which is exactly what my project will tackle.

Cold-Water Coral Mound Ecosystems are not only potentially important carbon sinks, but also do provide archives of past oceanographic conditions, and are hotspots of marine biodiversity. A greater understaning of these habitats could evenetually help their conservation in the future.