Collaborative Research: GEOTRACES Atlantic Section: Mercury Speciation Along a Zonal Section in the North Atlantic

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)资助的。GEOTRACES是一个国际海洋学项目，其目标是确定控制海洋中关键微量元素及其同位素分布的过程和通量，并建立对这些分布对不断变化的环境条件的敏感性的理解。汞是一种元素，目前几乎没有关于北大西洋的数据。因此，伍兹霍尔海洋研究所和莱特州立大学的科学家计划参加GEOTRACES北大西洋邮轮，对这个大洋盆地中的汞物种(即汞离子、元素汞、一甲基汞、二甲基汞)进行全面深入的调查。从广泛的海洋条件，包括热液输入地点、上升流、陆架水域、边缘海洋输入和受海洋采矿影响的区域进行采样，将有助于深入了解汞物种的运输和分离，过去、现在和未来人为汞排放对海洋的潜在影响，以及海洋在这种元素的全球生物地球化学循环中的作用。由于海洋在人类接触汞的过程中起着关键作用，这项研究还将深入了解鱼类体内积累的甲基化汞对人类和生态系统健康的威胁。伍兹霍尔海洋研究所的一名研究生以及莱特州立大学的一名研究生和一名本科生将作为该项目的一部分得到支持和培训。预计研究生将参加GEOTRACES大西洋邮轮。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).GEOTRACES is an international oceanographic program whose goal is to identify processes and quantify fluxes that control the distributions of key trace elements and their isotopes in the ocean and to establish an understanding of the sensitivity of these distributions to changing environmental conditions. Mercury (Hg) is an element for which almost no data currently exists for the North Atlantic. As such, scientist from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Wright State University plan to participate in the GEOTRACES North Atlantic cruise to carry out a full depth investigation of mercury species (i.e., mercuric ion, elemental Hg, monomethylmercury, dimethylmercury) in this ocean basin. Sampling from a wide range of oceanic conditions, including sites of hydrothermal input, upwelling, shelf waters, marginal sea inputs, and regions subject to oceanic mining influences will provide insight to the transport and segregation of Hg species, the potential impacts of past, present, and future anthropogenic Hg emissions on the ocean, as well as the role of the ocean in the global biogeochemical cycle of this element. Because the ocean plays a critical role in human exposure to mercury, this research will also provide insight to the human and ecosystem health threat from methylated-Hg accumulation in fish. One graduate student from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, as well as one graduate and one undergraduate student from Wright State University would be supported and trained as part of this project. It is anticipated the graduate students would participate in the GEOTRACES Atlantic cruise.