The NOAA Ocean Acidification Program (OAP) seeks to invest in data synthesis efforts to support marine carbon dioxide removal (mCDR) related data synthesis. Postdocs should utilize data from the OAP-managed mCDR research portfolio, in addition to other available data, to address at least one of the following topics: 1) understand, and make data-driven recommendations for, field and modeling designs of mCDR pilot projects including measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification and environmental monitoring, 2) constrain pilot project design differences for pursuing mCDR for carbon removal or as an active OA mitigation approach including feasibility analyses, and 3) develop products that would inform the idealized regional locations to pursue mCDR. Efforts should make significant use of repositories of NOAA funded and sponsored data and should remain mCDR approach agnostic as applicable.
Project background: Marine CDR (mCDR) refers to pathways that accelerate the ocean’s ability to draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or surface ocean utilizing the ocean or coastal environments. In addition to curbing emissions, CDR is now considered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change an essential approach for limiting global warming to 1.5°C, which is a tipping point with expected major, irreversible ecological and social impacts. mCDR is an emerging CDR technique that holds potential as the ocean has a great capacity to draw down carbon dioxide, yet many questions remain about the efficacy and safety of the approaches.
NOAA’s existing and innovative assets, such as observations, models, ecosystem assessments, spatial planning tools, and invested community engagement can deliver the foundational research needed to inform evidence-based decisions for potential deployment decisions in the future. Additionally, in FY23 OAP on behalf of the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) awarded $24.3M of funding aimed at bringing together academic researchers, federal scientists, and industry to advance research on mCDR. Funding supports research that expands understanding of various aspects of mCDR approaches, risks and co-benefits including ocean acidification mitigation, and science needed to inform regulatory decisions for testing and scaling of mCDR. The NOPP mCDR projects include lab experiments, modeling, field trials, and engaging communities to understand the impacts and effectiveness of various mCDR strategies.
Mentorship Experience:
The postdoc candidate will be sponsored by the NOAA OAP. They will join with a small cohort of postdocs researching the aspects of OAP’s ocean acidification research trifecta (ecosystem and species sensitivity, environmental change, and human dimensions). The OAP has mentored a number of graduate-level researchers through the years. All administrative activities will be handled by OAP.
The candidate will have two mentors. Their OAP mentor, Dr. Gabby Kitch, who is supervised by Dr. Sarah Cooley, will guide them through the NRC process and be their liaison at NOAA headquarters. Their scientific mentor will be a Ph.D.-holding Federal employee or affiliate at a NOAA fisheries science center or laboratory who is an expert in the field of mCDR. The scientific mentor will be determined based on the applicant’s research interests and proposal. All potential mentors have experience mentoring graduate and postgraduate students and have impactful publications in the field.
marine carbon dioxide removal; mCDR; carbon dioxide removal; ocean acidification mitigation; ocean data; data synthesis