National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
United States Department of Commerce

Dr. Brendan Carter

Research Oceanographer
Staff Affiliation: 
NOAA/PMEL
PMEL Division: 
Ocean Climate
PMEL Project: 
Ocean Carbon

Postdoctoral research associate, Princeton University, 2011-2014
Ph.D., Chemical Oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 2011
B.S., Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, 2004
B.A., Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, 2004

Research Interests:

Humans are emitting CO2 to the atmosphere at a rate that is unprecedented in Earth’s history. Despite this, the oceans still hold many times the amount of CO2 dissolved in their depths than can be found in the atmosphere. This is because the ocean is a well-buffered solution replete with alkaline minerals that have washed off from land over the ages. My research is centered around efforts using a diverse array of physical and chemical ocean measurements to figure out how much of the carbon in the ocean is there because of human emissions. I then use that information with forward, inverse, and data assimilating models to make inferences about how much the ocean can buffer future CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, the chemical and (increasingly) biological consequences of this marine CO2 uptake, and what we can do to best monitor our rapidly changing planet.