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Dr Pablo Trucco Pignata

Job Title
Research Scientist – Autonomous Sensor Development
Site
Southampton

Biography

 I am an oceanographer working on observations of seawater carbonate chemistry, oxygen and nutrients: how that chemistry varies, what processes control it, and how to measure it at the spatial and temporal scales that matter. As a Research Scientist in Ocean Technology and Engineering at the National Oceanography Centre, I work with a team developing lab-on-chip sensors for carbonate chemistry, and deploying them on floats, gliders, moorings and other autonomous platforms.

Shipboard measurements remain fundamental: they provide the analytical reference, comprehensive sampling and process-level context needed to understand the ocean. Autonomous observations do not replace them; they extend their reach in space and time, resolving short-lived processes while sustaining observations across seasons and years to capture interannual variability and long-term trends. I am particularly interested in environments where physical and biological processes interact across these scales — polar and subpolar oceans, coastal waters and oxygen minimum zones — and where combining detailed ship-based measurements with sustained autonomous observations is essential to understand how the system varies and changes.

These questions have taken me from OMZ ventilation and DIC in the Mexican Pacific to oxygen and carbon budgets in the Southern Ocean, bloom- and calcification-driven alkalinity changes in the North Atlantic, nutrient–carbon coupling in Arctic gateway waters, and long records at sustained open-ocean observatories. Across these systems, I am interested in how circulation, biological production and respiration, air–sea exchange and water-mass history shape carbon and oxygen variability, from transient events and mesoscale processes to seasonal and interannual variability and long-term change.

A related question is how to observe a changing ocean without compromising analytical quality. Combining shipboard chemistry with autonomous sensors increases the frequency, duration and spatial coverage of carbonate-system and oxygen measurements, building the robust observing systems needed to detect ocean acidification and constrain carbon budgets. Part of my work applies this same approach to marine carbon dioxide removal, where any attempt to detect, attribute or quantify an intervention must first distinguish its signal from natural biogeochemical variability and establish how carbon moves through the ocean.

I hold a BSc in Oceanography and an MSc in Coastal Oceanography from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Mexico, and a PhD in Ocean and Earth Science from the University of Southampton.


Profile photo

Publications

Authors

Hoffmann, Linn J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0242-4686; Bach, Lennart T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0202-3671; Bauer, Kohen W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3426-2434; Cross, Jessica ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6650-9905; Ghosh, Anwesha ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1765-9832; Hernández-Ayón, Jose Martín ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6869-6225; Kvale, Karin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8043-5431; Lencina-Avila, Jannine M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5800-2760; Matovu, Baker ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1814-5705; Shaltout, Nayrah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1038-3642; Somorin, Ifeoluwa Abolade; Mafuwane, Hluphi Constance ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-3664-0709; Van Dam, Bryce ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0876-1392; Allela, Abbie Akinyi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4607-5748; Adell, Magak ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1897-3779; Anderson, Harris ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7023-0344; Arora, Parth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9165-1201; Atamanchuk, Dariia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9117-502X; Avrutin, Sandy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3064-2712; Baker, Chelsey A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0840-2333; Bednaršek, Nina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9177-6626; Bell, Thomas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4108-7048; Bernardello, Raffaele ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4923-1582; Boxhammer, Tim ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9632-5947; Burfat, Mukhtiar Ali; Cassar, Nicolas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0100-3783; Chadsey, Meg ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1907-4224; Chase, Zanna ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5060-779X; Cotovicz, Luiz C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3914-8155; Croot, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1396-0601; Carvalho, Andréa da Consolação de O. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9159-9498; N’Yeurt, Antoine De Ramon ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9337-150X; Dias-Wanigasekera, Beatrice Manel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7022-2889; Dillon, Wayne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5561-0776; Ellwood, Michael ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4288-8530; Fennel, Katja ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3170-2331; Gattuso, Jean-Pierre ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4533-4114; Grabb, Kalina ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8771-7191; Halloran, Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9227-0678; Howard, Will ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0714-9994; Jaraula, Caroline Marie B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3062-1900; Jupesta, Joni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6884-2798; Karspeck, Alicia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-9902-869X; Keller, Elizabeth D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9408-9215; Kitidis, Vassilis ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3949-3802; Law, Cliff S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7669-2475; Liu, Jihua; Long, Jacki ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5880-0009; López-Abbate, M. Celeste ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0264-5833; Meléndez, Melissa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3336-8226; Mengis, Nadine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0312-7069; Mills, Rebecca; Möller, Klas Ove ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3118-2161; Munna, Abubakari H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8858-0457; Müller, Jens Daniel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3137-0883; Osma, Natalia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6537-8739; Palter, Jaime ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2656-8062; Park, Keyhong ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-2735-2214; Pearce, Christopher ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4382-2341; Quintana, Cintia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3022-6145; Rackley, Steve ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1252-5376; Rafter, Patrick ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6352-7593; Rengiil, Geraldine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-5090-7424; de Oliveira, Raquel Renó ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0266-8154; Ringham, Mallory ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4802-0185; Rohr, Tyler ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6599-8068; Sabine, Christopher ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6945-8552; Shadwick, Elizabeth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4008-3333; Simancas-Giraldo, Susana M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7845-9386; Singh, Arvind ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3060-891X; Subhas, Adam ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7688-6624; Sutton, Adrienne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7414-7035; Swaleh, Mariam ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7866-4064; Tamsitt, Veronica ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8816-2239; Trucco-Pignata, Pablo ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3996-4600; Wallace, Doug ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7832-3887; Wang, Yuntao ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1579-5948; Ward, Brian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6763-5778; Xie, Yinghuan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6809-1920; Zitoun, Rebecca ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5539-7701. 2026 Monitoring, reporting, and verification of marine carbon dioxide removal: Exploring scientific consensus and divergences across continents. Elem Sci Anth, 14 (1). 10.1525/elementa.2025.00113

Publication year

2026

Publication type

Article

Authors

Delval, Mona H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-4020-8171; Henriksson, Patrik J. G.; Behrens, Paul; Scherer, Laura; Trucco-Pignata, Pablo; Grasse, Patricia; Renforth, Phil; Thonemann, Nils. 2026 Guidance on integrating marine environmental impacts of ocean alkalinity enhancement into life cycle assessment. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 31 (7). 10.1007/s11367-026-02707-z

Publication year

2026

Publication type

Article

Authors

Hammermeister, Emily M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1739-761X; Wimart-Rousseau, Cathy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9416-2873; Papadimitriou, Stathys; Trucco-Pignata, Pablo; Chaney, Edward ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9090-9506; Templeton, Robert; Phillips, Alexander B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3234-8506; Loucaides, Socratis ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5285-660X. 2026 Coastal Marine Carbon and Air‐Sea Fluxes Quantified From pH Sensors on an Extended AUV Deployment. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 131 (8). 10.1029/2025JC023213

Publication year

2026

Publication type

Article

Authors

Palevsky, Hilary I.; Clayton, Sophie; Benway, Heather; Maheigan, Mairead; Atamanchuk, Dariia; Battisti, Roman; Batryn, Jennifer; Bourbonnais, Annie; Briggs, Ellen M.; Carvalho, Filipa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8355-4329; Chase, Alison P.; Eveleth, Rachel; Fatland, Rob; Fogaren, Kristen E.; Fram, Jonathan Peter; Hartman, Susan E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6363-1331; Le Bras, Isabela; Manning, Cara C. M.; Needoba, Joseph A.; Neely, Merrie Beth; Oliver, Hilde; Reed, Andrew C.; Rheuban, Jennie E.; Schallenberg, Christina; Walsh, Ian; Wingard, Christopher; Bauer, Kohen; Chen, Baoshan; Cuevas, Jose; Flecha, Susana; Horwith, Micah; Melendez, Melissa; Menz, Tyler; Rivero-Calle, Sara; Roden, Nicholas P.; Steinhoff, Tobias; Trucco-Pignata, Pablo Nicolás; Vardaro, Michael F.; Yoder, Meg. 2024 A model for community-driven development of best practices: the Ocean Observatories Initiative Biogeochemical Sensor Data Best Practices and User Guide. Frontiers in Marine Science, 11. 10.3389/fmars.2024.1358591

Publication year

2024

Publication type

Article