Sources of Enrichment of Dissolved Free and Combined Amino Acids in the Sea Surface Microlayer

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ABSTRACTOCE-0117208In this study, researchers at the State University of New York at Stony Brook will attempt to identify and describe the various processes that lead to the enrichment of dissolved organic matter in the sea-surface microlayer. The sea-surface microlayer plays a major role in the exchange of matter and energy in the ocean-atmosphere system. Organic matter enriches the surface microlayer and influences its chemical, biological, and physical characteristics. Different constituents concentrate in the microlayer non-uniformly; consequently, the ratios of many dissolved elements and organic compounds therein differ from those in bulk water. These studies will focus on the transfer of dissolved free and combined amino acids between particulate and dissolved pools under the unique conditions of the interfacial laminar layer. A number of factors will be considered: increased physical stress on the biological community at the sea surface (e.g., by UV-radiation, evaporation, entrapment in spray), which causes leaching of organic matter from the resulting dead or injured organisms; dissolved organic matter decomposition by metabolically active neuston (hydrolysis, oxidation, and uptake); adsorption of dissolved matter onto particles which in the microlayer; and bubble scavenging from bulk water to the surface microlayer of proteinaceous matter that is dissolved or weakly associated with particles.