Mechanisms of Organic Matter Preservation in Marine Sediments: A Focus on Black Carbon and Nonextractable Alkyl Components

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ABSTRACTOCE-0002391In this project, an marine organic geochemist at the University of Washington will continue his long-time program of research into the forms, distributions and preservation of major forms of organic matter in marine sediments. In particular, this present project has three major goals. In its principal initiative, the research team will characterize bulk sedimentary organic material by a combination of solid-state 13C NMR and other techniques. A special effort will be made to investigate the nature of the "black carbon" and the organic nitrogen abundant in sediments throughout the world ocean; despite their ubiquity, both are notoriously difficult to study. Secondly the team will study the forms and reactions of sedimentary organic matter that react with oxygen. Finally, a new molecular method for measuring tannins in the environment will be finished. Such studies are important for understanding how carbon is cycled in the present day ocean as well as in the longer geological context of burial, uplift, and re-exposure to weathering and exploitation by humans.