Rapid DIC Data: From Shipboard Sampling to Carbon Insights

Coastal and glacial fjord environments can change rapidly across short distances and timescales, yet understanding their carbon chemistry often depends on samples that must be preserved, transported, and analyzed long after a field campaign has ended. For researchers working in remote environments, obtaining high-quality carbon measurements quickly and reliably can be a major challenge.

Join Nicole Trenholm, PhD candidate at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Science Expedition Leader with Ocean Research Project, to learn how dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) measurements can bring carbon chemistry analysis directly into the field.

Drawing from Ocean Research Project's work along Greenland's glaciated coastline, Nicole will discuss the practical challenges of collecting carbon-system observations from a small sailing research vessel and the opportunities created by a compact, stable, and efficient approach to DIC measurement. She will also demonstrate how rapid DIC measurements can help researchers identify spatial patterns, evaluate unexpected observations, and adapt sampling strategies while still in the field.

DIC is also a critical first step toward understanding the carbon dynamics of coastal ecosystems. Variations in DIC reflect the combined influence of biological production and respiration, freshwater inputs, mixing, carbonate processes, and exchange with the atmosphere. When interpreted alongside supporting environmental measurements, such as other carbonate parameters, dissolved oxygen, salinity, and temperature, DIC can provide valuable insight into how the metabolism and carbon chemistry of a coastal system are changing.

For researchers working in dynamic and difficult-to-access polar coastal environments, this webinar will show how bringing DIC analysis into the field can support more responsive, observation-driven carbon research and provide a critical first step toward quantifying how these environments exchange carbon with the atmosphere.

• The challenges of making high-quality DIC measurements during remote ocean field campaigns
• How compact, stable instrumentation makes DIC measurements practical aboard small research vessels
• How rapid analysis can provide results while researchers are still in the field that help guide sampling decisions
• What DIC patterns can reveal about biological production, respiration, mixing, and freshwater influence
• How DIC observations support the next step: calculating pCO₂ and measuring air-sea CO₂ exchange