Assessing the Impact of Developing-World Land Use on Riverine Organic Carbon Delivery to the Ocean

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法》(公法111-5)资助的。河流输入在全球海洋的地球化学中发挥着重要作用。河流为沿海陆架和开阔海域提供了营养物质、有机物和悬浮沉积物的重要来源。向沿海地区输送高营养负荷可以增加初级生产力，这将进一步增加向海洋沉积物输送的有机碳量。了解从河流向海洋输送的陆地物质的数量和化学成分，对于理解海洋沉积物中碳埋藏的当前和未来模式至关重要。人们认识到，位于热带和亚热带发展中地区的流域在河流营养物质释放方面发挥着越来越重要的作用，要预测人类对沿海和全球海洋过程的影响，重要的是了解全球发展中地区的影响。莱斯大学的研究人员将研究委内瑞拉的一套河流，以表征发展中国家土地利用做法对河流营养物质、有机碳和向海洋的总悬浮固体输入的影响。将影响和土地利用指数与出口材料的化学成分相关联，将有助于澄清土地利用与运往海洋的河流材料的质量和组成之间的关系。这项研究的结果还将提供对全球海洋碳循环的更好的总体了解。这项研究是美国和委内瑞拉科学家合作完成的，将为两名博士生提供支持。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).River inputs play a significant role in the geochemistry of the global oceans. Rivers provide a significant source of nutrients, organic matter and suspended sediment to coastal shelves and the open ocean. The delivery of high nutrient loads to coastal areas can increase primary production, which will further increase the amount of organic carbon delivered to marine sediments. Understanding the amount, as well as the chemistry, of the terrestrial materials delivered from rivers to the ocean is essential to comprehend both the current and future patterns of carbon burial in ocean sediments. It is recognized that watersheds located in tropical and subtropical developing regions play an increasingly important role in river nutrient release, and to predict the human impact on coastal and global ocean processes, it is important to understand the impacts of the developing regions of the globe. Researchers from Rice University will study a suite of Venezuelan rivers to characterize the effects of developing-world land use practices on river nutrients, organic carbon, and total suspended solid inputs to the ocean. Correlating an impact and land use index with the chemistry of exported materials, will provide clarification on the relationship between land use and the mass and composition of the riverine material delivered to the ocean. The results from this research will also provide a better overall understanding of the global marine carbon cycle. This research is being done as a collaborative effort between United States and Venezuelan scientists and will provide support for two PhD students.