One of the key research areas of the Bluewater and Climate Node is tracking multi-decadal ocean change, understanding its role in setting the global response rates to increasing anthropogenic forcing and projecting regional, coastal and marine impacts.

The global oceans constitute the primary source of thermal inertia of the climate system and also contain the largest pool of active carbon in our planetary system.  Thus, they are a key player in setting the rate at which anthropogenic greenhouse gases build up in the atmosphere and how fast the surface warms in response to the radiative forcing that results.  Tracking and understanding the processes by which both carbon and heat are sequestered into the global oceans is essential in monitoring global change rates and for informing Earth System Models (ESMs) that are being used to project future climate.

Key Science Questions

• How are the global energy balance and the large scale temperature changing? What is the impact on regional sea level rise?
• How is the global overturning circulation changing?
• What are the roles of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the Indonesian Throughflow in these changes? What are the causes?
• What is the response of the global hydrological cycle to climate change?
• What is the response of the global ocean carbon cycle to climate change?
• Can we quantify air-sea carbon fluxes and their variability?
• How is the CO2 uptake on the Australian shelves and regional seas evolving?
• What are the key biological and physical processes involved in air-sea CO2 exchange in the Southern Ocean and Australian region?
• How sensitive are they to climate change?
• How do changes in ocean acidification influence key vulnerable ecosystems such as the Southern Ocean, coral reefs and the continental shelves?