The biological carbon pump refers to the series of ecological processes by which atmospheric CO2 is transformed into organic carbon by phytoplankton, repackaged by pelagic biota, exported through sinking particles (i.e. the marine snow) and sequestered in deep waters for centuries or buried in sediments for thousands of years. This ecosystem process regulates the ocean carbon cycle and by extension the climate system, but little is known on its potential response to climate change.

The project aims to reconstruct the functioning of the biological carbon pump over the last 130,000 years, and asses its responses to past climate transitions, a knowledge that will inform on its possible future functioning. We will use large-scale plankton and sediment samples, as well as several sediment cores collected in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans to address this question.