Collaborative Research (OSU, USC, UCR):Continental Shelf Diagenesis: The Importance of Fresh Continental Material Degradation and Seasonal Diagenesis to Coastal Iron Supply

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ABSTRACTOCE-0624777OCE-0624443OCE-0624704The oxidation-reduction reactions that dominate the shelf seabed act to mobilize or sequester biologically essential elements. However, relatively little information is known about the delivery rates or diagenic boundary conditions that lead to this specific iron source. Thus, it is difficult to predict how changes in the regional hydrological cycle and weathering might impact future coastal iron delivery rates in response to global climate change, as well as quantify how increases (or decreases) in coastal hypoxia influence iron supply. For this reason, researchers at Oregon State University, the University of Southern California, and the University of California-Riverside will determine the diagenetic delivery rate (effux) of iron from small river-dominated continental shelf sediments deposits. They will assess whether or not diagenesis of fresh continental material is an essential process for delivering bio-available iron to the Northeast Pacific coastal upwelling system, and if the isotopic signature for iron that is derived from benthic diagenesis is distinct from other iron sources. The first part of the study will be to evaluate the benthic efflux of iron in fine-grained river-derived shelf deposits prior to, during, and after the upwelling season. The second component will be to test the idea that diagenetically altered terrestrial iron, which has undergone multiple oxidation-reduction reactions within sediments, has a unique isotope signature. If true, iron isotopes could then prove to be a valuable tracer for shelf-derived iron, which has been hypothesized to be an important source of iron throughout much of the Pacific basin. In addition to the intellectual merit of this work, this study will strengthen collaboration with colleagues and a graduate student from the National Oceanographic Center in Southampton, United Kingdom, whom are working on a similar study in the South Atlantic (CROZEX). Two undergraduate students from Oregon State University and one graduate and one undergraduate student from the University of Southern California will be supported and trained as part of this project.