Biogeochemical Cycling and Authigenic Mineral Formation in Suboxic Tropical Mobile Mud Belts

亚氧移动的泥带显然是热带大陆架大部分地区的特征，并可能在全球地球化学循环和元素储存中发挥重要作用。 在这项研究中，来自斯托尼布鲁克的纽约州立大学的调查人员将继续他们过去在亚马逊河下游法属圭亚那附近的移动的泥带的工作，并与一个国际小组一起开始对巴布亚新几内亚大陆架上的类似沉积物进行研究。 主要目标有三：（1）记录、量化和模拟海底最上层2米处生物碎屑和营养物质的循环速率、反应途径、物质来源和沉积储存;（2）描述底栖生物系统与特定物理/沉积环境的关系;阐明了沉积物的自生矿物组合和生物构造特征。 这项工作有望显着增加我们目前的了解，这些热带沉积物系统中的碳，营养物质和微量金属的循环中所发挥的作用。

ABSTRACTOCE-9818574Suboxic mobile mud belts apparently characterize large portions of tropical continental shelves and may play a major role in global biogeochemical cycling and elemental storage. In this study, investigators from the State University of New York at Stony Brook will continue their past work on mobile mud belts off French Guiana downdrift of the Amazon River and initiate study with an international team on similar deposits on the shelf of Papua New Guinea.. There are three primary objectives: (1) to document, quantify, and model the cycling rates, reaction pathways, material source, and sedimentary storage of biogenic debris amd nutrients in the topmost 2 meters of seafloor; (2) to characterize the associations of benthic biological regimes with particular physical/sedimentological settings; and (3) to elucidate the authigenic mineral assemblages and biogenic structures characterizing these sediments. This work promises to significantly increase our current understanding of the roles played by these tropical sediment systems in the cycling of carbon, nutrients, and trace metals.