RAPID Response in Gulf of Mexico: Sediment Trap Investigations

墨西哥湾的快速响应：沉积物收集器调查

• 批准号: 1044289
• 负责人: Chris German
• 金额: $ 19.39万
• 依托单位: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-08-01 至 2014-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1044289&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Response; Gulf; Mexico; Sediment

Intellectual Merit: In September 2009, two time-series sediment trap and current meter moorings were deployed in the northern Gulf of Mexico to investigate biogenic fluxes settling to the seafloor (and larval recruitment) at two well-characterized and significant sites of combined deep-water coral and chemosynthetic tube-worm colonies (Fisher et al., 2007). Each of thesetraps, set just above the seabed and in water depths of 400-450m, have been collecting a new sample of settling material every two weeks since 11 September 2009 and will continue to do so until 2nd July 2010 when their last sample bottle will be rotated shut and the traps will awaitrecovery as part of an already-funded field program (NOAA-MMS) scheduled for November. Serendipitously, however, these two traps are located just 32 nmiles to the NE and 81 nmiles to the WSW of the recent Deepwater Horizon incident and continuing oil release from the seafloor. Continuous monitoring by NOAA has shown that at least one of these two study sites became overlain by oil discharge at the ocean surface by the end of April and that both sites are nowoverlain by at least light to medium concentrations of hydrocarbons ± dispersant. What remains unestablished at this point, however, is what is happening at depth and what impacts there may be at the Gulf of Mexico seafloor and, specifically, its pristine and unique deepwater coral/chemosynthetic tube-worm colonies. The purpose of this proposal, therefore, is two-fold. First we seek to join a rapid response research cruise to the area to deploy two additional short sediment trap and current meter moorings to ensure that we maintain continuity in the sampling that began 6 months before the incident and remains ongoing at each of the two sites that we hadpreviously targeted as being of most significance in terms of deepwater coral/chemosynthetic tubeworm ecosystems. If we do not achieve that, our time series will end on July 2nd. Second, and anticipating that there will be a wealth of additional studies that many other PIs will wish to pursue, we seek sufficient funds to conduct initial characterization from these samples (plus those from our earlier deployments) as soon as they are recovered (already-funded cruise in November 2010). Specifically, we anticipate generating a suite of archived samples with coregistered information on mass and biogenic flux (to include inorganic and organic carbon content) and preliminary ?finger-printing? of any hydrocarbon signatures present in each sample.Broader Impacts: The emerging environmental impact in the Gulf of Mexico is of great societal concern and has implications for both future deepwater resource extraction and energy supply for the nation. But the majority of the attention currently being paid to the GoM system is, of necessity, focused on the shallow upper ocean where data is most readily obtained. Serendipitously, this work represents a project that can shed unique light on the effects that maybe being imparted upon remarkable and formerly pristine deepwater ecosystems in close proximity to the Deepwater Horizon well-head. Because our combined analyses will only require a small fraction of the samples we collect we will archive the remainder of each sample carefully for broader investigations and, further, we will publicize our results widely and promptly to engender such value-added research. For example, this work will clearly be of relevance and potential to other projects also being developed by (e.g.) R.Camilli (WHOI) andC.Fisher (Penn.State). Our group stands ready to work with all such interested scientific parties and is also in contact with a film team (Mike deGruy, based in Santa Barbara) interested in a response effort (although we have no commitments to them should another team prove more suitable for that work).

智力成果：2009 年 9 月，在墨西哥湾北部部署了两个时间序列沉积物捕获器和海流计系泊装置，以调查两个特征明确且重要的深水珊瑚和化学合成管虫群落组合地点沉降到海底的生物通量（和幼虫招募）（Fisher 等人，2007 年）。每个陷阱都设置在海床正上方，水深为 400-450m，自 2009 年 9 月 11 日以来，每两周收集一次新的沉降材料样本，并将继续这样做，直到 2010 年 7 月 2 日，最后一个样本瓶将被轮换关闭，陷阱将等待回收，作为计划于 11 月进行的已资助实地计划 (NOAA-MMS) 的一部分。然而，巧合的是，这两个圈闭距离最近发生的深水地平线事件和海底持续漏油事件的东北方向仅 32 海里，距西西南方向仅 81 海里。 NOAA 的持续监测表明，到 4 月底，这两个研究地点中至少有一个被海洋表面的石油排放覆盖，并且这两个地点现在都被至少轻到中等浓度的碳氢化合物 + 分散剂覆盖。然而，目前尚未确定的是，墨西哥湾海底深处正在发生什么，特别是其原始而独特的深水珊瑚/化学合成管虫群落，可能会产生什么影响。因此，该提案的目的有两个。首先，我们寻求加入对该地区的快速响应研究巡航，部署两个额外的短沉积物捕集器和海流计系泊装置，以确保我们保持事件发生前 6 个月开始的采样的连续性，并在我们之前定位的对深水珊瑚/化学合成管虫生态系统最重要的两个地点中继续进行。如果我们达不到这一目标，我们的时间系列将于 7 月 2 日结束。其次，预计将有许多其他 PI 希望进行的大量额外研究，我们寻求足够的资金，以便在这些样本（以及我们早期部署的样本）恢复后立即对它们进行初步表征（已于 2010 年 11 月资助巡航）。具体来说，我们预计生成一套存档样本，其中包含有关质量和生物通量（包括无机和有机碳含量）和初步“指纹”的共同注册信息。每个样本中存在的任何碳氢化合物特征。更广泛的影响：墨西哥湾新出现的环境影响引起了社会的极大关注，并对国家未来的深水资源开采和能源供应产生影响。但目前对 GoM 系统的大部分关注必然集中在最容易获取数据的浅层上层海洋。偶然的是，这项工作代表了一个项目，可以以独特的方式揭示可能对深水地平线井口附近的显着且以前原始的深水生态系统产生的影响。由于我们的综合分析只需要我们收集的样本的一小部分，因此我们将仔细存档每个样本的其余部分，以进行更广泛的调查，此外，我们将广泛而迅速地公布我们的结果，以产生此类增值研究。例如，这项工作显然与 R.Camilli (WHOI) 和 C.Fisher (Penn.State) 正在开发的其他项目具有相关性和潜力。我们的团队随时准备与所有感兴趣的科学团体合作，并且还与对响应工作感兴趣的电影团队（Mike deGruy，总部位于圣巴巴拉）保持联系（尽管如果另一个团队被证明更适合这项工作，我们不会向他们做出任何承诺）。