In the early 1980s, ocean scientists were increasingly aware of the importance of biologically active elements, such as carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, in the regulation of climate and its effects on the habitability of the planet. As scientists reviewed details of the processes that control ocean carbon cycling and the links among oceanic, atmospheric and sedimentary carbon pools, it was clear that it was “hard to make the numbers add up” (Brewer et al., 1986). Fluxes of carbon into and out of the ocean were only crudely constrained, and little detail existed on the seasonaL regional and global patterns of carbon uptake and export or the flux of carbon between the ocean and its boundaries.

Buesseler, K.O. 2001. Ocean biogeochemistry and the global carbon cycle: An introduction to the U.S. Joint Global Ocean Flux Study. Oceanography 14(4):5, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2001.01.

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