Project: RAPID: El Nino Event Impacts on Organic Matter Export and Composition in the Amazon River

NSF Award Abstract:
The Amazon River is one of the largest sources of freshwater and carbon to the ocean. Thus, understanding the factors that influence freshwater delivery from the Amazon River is important for understanding the carbon cycle of the Amazon River and the receiving Atlantic Ocean. El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a periodic event that causes changes in winds and sea surface temperature over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean and affects climate in the tropics and subtropics. The National Weather Service predicts that El Niño conditions are likely to form across the Pacific during Summer 2023. These conditions are expected to last through February 2024. This event is expected to impact precipitation and air temperatures in the Amazon Basin and freshwater delivery from the Amazon River. This project aims to study the amount and chemical composition of dissolved organic carbon delivered from the Amazon River to the Atlantic Ocean during the 2023-2024 El Niño event. Scientists involved in this project plan to collect samples from late Summer 2023 through late Summer 2024. The study will identify conditions before, during and after this event. This unique set of samples will enable the team of scientists to study how ENSO influences the delivery of organic carbon to the coastal ocean.
This project provides support for an early career researcher and promotes international cooperation and inclusivity between researchers from the United States of America and researchers in Brazil who are directly impacted by the changing Amazon River.

This project examines how El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) anomalies impact the export of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from the Amazon River to the Atlantic Ocean. Based on recent studies, it has been hypothesized that the upcoming 2023 El Niño event will reduce the annual DOC flux and proportion of exported terrestrial DOM from the Amazon River compared to non-ENSO and La Niña years. This hypothesis will be examined by linking established state-of-the-art optical and molecular-level characterization techniques (e.g., Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry; FT-ICR MS) with DOC flux calculations over the course of an El Niño year. Analyzing both bulk DOC fluxes and the molecular-level composition will reveal how the quantity and quality of DOM export will change monthly in response to reduced precipitation and higher temperature across the Amazon Basin and headwaters. DOC fluxes as well as detailed characterizations (FT-ICR MS, optical, fluorescence analysis) of DOM sampled from the furthest downstream Amazon River gauging station at Óbidos (Brazil) will be directly compared to results obtained from the 2011-2012 La Niña year and the following 2012-2013 hydrologically normal year to determine how global climate anomalies impact the DOC export to marine systems and to create a framework for future predictions. Data obtained from this proposed study will lay the foundations for larger studies investigating how ENSO cycles impact discharge and carbon export from other major tropical-subtropical rivers and ultimately, how ENSO cycles impact global land-ocean carbon export.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.