Time Series Sediment Trapping in the Sargasso Sea and A Search for an Efficient Assessment of the Biological Pump

该项目代表了研究所需的支助余额 与马尾藻海的时间序列沉积物捕获有关， 为了确保在目前的P.I.之后继续工作。的 全职参与。 拟议的工作有两个主要方面 目标：（1）大部分工作将用于 确定表层海洋变量与深层海洋变量之间的关系， 海洋碳通量 许多人认为海洋生物群 研究人员在去除碳中发挥重要作用 从大气层和上层海洋到深海， 有机物和碳酸盐颗粒的产生， 混合层 然而，估计数有相当大的差异， 这一机制的有效性，“生物泵”， 相对于注入的二氧化碳量， 人类活动造成的大气。 对规模的评估， 因此，泵的可变性和长期趋势是期望的。 直接测量深海碳通量过于昂贵 和劳动密集型的大规模工作， 时期 然而，有一种明显的可能性， 容易监测的表层海洋特性可以作为 深层碳通量 为了验证这一假设，本研究将 研究碳通量是否以一致的方式变化 与以下一种或几种组合的变化的关系 这些表面特性。 合适代理的标识可以 允许长期监测深层碳通量， 鳞片 现有的时间序列的比较研究， 传感、气象和水文数据， 另一方面，深层碳通量数据是一种有前途的方法。 的 这类研究的重点将是年度以外的时期 因为所有可能的代理候选人都有一个年度周期， 在揭示因果关系方面没有什么价值。 比较 将在连续的深层碳通量测量之间进行， 马尾藻海和上级的各种水文和 气象数据集，以及卫星数据，为该地区。 虽然马尾藻海只是几个 主要海洋学领域，可能有不同的 特征代理和代理碳通量关系， 通过代理评估碳通量的能力，即使在部分地区， 海洋可以释放资源进行更深入的原位研究， 其他领域。 (2)目前的建模工作，以确定手段和 收集粒子的源区和路径的时间方差 用不同深度的沉积物收集器，即用真实的和模型 电流矢量在采样区域中描绘的形状， 统计漏斗连接陷阱到海面，将 完成。

This project represents the balance of support required for studies related to time-series sediment trapping in the Sargasso Sea and for assuring continuation of the work beyond the present P.I.'s full-time involvement. The proposed work has two primary objectives: (1) A major portion of the effort will be spent on identifying relationships between surface-ocean variables and deep- ocean carbon flux. The marine biota is thought by many investigators to play an important part in the removal of carbon from the atmosphere and upper ocean to the deep ocean through the production of organic and carbonate particles which sink out of the mixed layer. There is, however, a considerable range in estimates of the effectiveness of this mechanism, the "biological pump", relative to the amounts of carbon dioxide injected into the atmosphere by human activities. An assessment of the magnitude, variability and secular trend of the pump is thus desirable. Direct measurement of deep-ocean carbon flux is far too expensive and labor-intensive to be done on a large scale over extended periods. However, there is a distinct possibility that much more easily monitored surface-ocean properties may serve as proxies for deep carbon flux. To test this hypothesis, this study will investigate whether or not carbon flux varies in a consistent relationship to variations in one or a combination of several of those surface properties. Identification of suitable proxies may permit long-term monitoring of the deep carbon flux on large scales. Comparative studies of existing time series of remote- sensing, meteorologic, and hydrographic data on one hand and of deep carbon-flux data on the other are a promising approach. The emphasis in such studies will be on other-than-annual periods because the annual cycle, common to all likely proxy candidates, is of little value in revealing causative connections. Comparisons will be made between continuous deep carbon-flux measurements in the Sargasso Sea and a superior variety of hydrographic and meteorologic data sets, as well as satellite data, for the area. While the Sargasso Sea is representative of only one of several major oceanographic domains which are likely to have different characteristic proxies and proxy-carbon flux relationships, the ability to assess carbon flux by means of proxies even in part of the ocean can free resources for more intensive in-situ studies in other areas. (2) Present modeling efforts at determining means and time variances of the source areas and paths of particles collected by sediment traps at different depths, i.e. using real and model current vectors in the sampling area to delineate the shapes of the statistical funnels connecting the traps to the sea surface, will be completed.