Tinna Jokulsdottir Graduate Student Department of the Geophysical Sciences 5734 S. Ellis Ave. HGS 429 Chicago, IL 60637 Phone: (773) 795-6696 E-mail: tinna@uchicago.edu

I am currently in my forth year of graduate study. My research focuses on the carbon cycle, specifically in the ocean. I model the sinking detritus in the ocean to try to better understand the controls on the organic carbon flux.

Many processes in the water column affect sinking detritus. When modelling the flux, climate models represent these processes often as one or two parameters. This is not conducive to enhance understanding what controls the flux of organic carbon and other components of the sinking detitrus to the deep sea. By modelling the individual processes that take place on/in the sinking detitrus we hope to gain understanding about why some regions export organic carbon more efficiently to the deep sea than others and what controls the fate of the minerals associated with the flux.

One of the reasons for looking closely at the carbon cycle is to understand better how the carbon cycle responds to climate. Looking at glacial times we are interested in how to explain the shift in atmospheric carbon dioxide content, there the ocean carbon cycle is key. With todays environmental experiment it is interesting and crucial to understand how the carbon cycle will respond to the changes in for example sea surface pH and stratification.