James Potemra
University of Hawaii at Manoa, HI·Earth & Environmental Science
Much of the open ocean is an ocean desert, with few nutrients and little life near the surface. Yet these regions still help move carbon and heat through the climate system.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Engineering
- Topics
oceanography
deep ocean observatory
cabled observatory
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2028
What they work on
- Operate and maintain the ALOHA Cabled Observatory, a seafloor station 4,728 m deep north of Oahu, including repairing and redeploying core pressure, fluorometer, and temperature/salinity sensors.
- Provide power, data bandwidth and precise timing so researchers can develop and test new deep-ocean sensors, supported by a newly available remotely operated vehicle.
- Deliver publicly available real-time data, video and audio streams that complement ship-based Hawaii Ocean Time-series measurements and the surface mooring at Station ALOHA.
- Support community studies of carbon export, nutrient injection into the sunlit layer, water-column mixing, marine mammals, acoustic estimates of ocean temperature, and tsunami and seismic signals.
More about the research
Understanding them requires long, continuous measurements from the sea surface down to the seafloor. Station ALOHA (A Long-term Oligotrophic Habitat Assessment), 100 km north of Oahu, Hawaii, has hosted repeated observations since the late 1980s and represents a large fraction of the global ocean.
Why it matters
Continuous public data from the deep ocean could help scientists model how human activity affects ocean carbon storage, nutrients and mixing, all of which matter for climate prediction. Seafloor pressure records may improve understanding of tsunamis and seismic events relevant to coastal communities, and long-term sound recordings could help track changes in marine mammal populations.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Angelicque White
University of Hawaii at Manoa, HI·Earth & Environmental Science
Sustain time-resolved hydrographic, biogeochemical and biological measurements at Station ALOHA through ten five-day cruises per year plus moored platforms, extending the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre climatology to 40 years.
Oscar Sosa
University of Puget Sound, WA·Earth & Environmental Science
Test whether methane made from methylamine and methane made from methylphosphonate in high-molecular-weight dissolved organic matter carry distinct stable carbon isotope signatures.
Brandy Toner
University of Minnesota, MN·Earth & Environmental Science
Determine how dissolved organic carbon and iron-binding organic ligands control the 'colloidal shunt', in which tiny suspended iron particles clump with organic carbon and sink, using experiments across seasons and locations.
The school
University of Hawaii at Manoa: 23 labs on PI Pages, $376M a year on research, 182 research doctorates a year.
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