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).

智力优点：2009年9月，在墨西哥北部部署了两个时间系列的沉积物陷阱和当前的仪表陷阱，以调查在两个良好的深水珊瑚珊瑚和化学管道和化学管旋转的深层且重要的地点的海底（和幼虫募集）的生物磁通量（和幼虫募集）。每个thesetaps都设置在海床上，水深为400-450m，我们是否正在收集自2009年9月11日以来每两周每两周收集新的设置材料样本，直到2010年7月2日，直到2010年7月2日将其最后一个样本瓶子旋转，陷阱将被旋转，并且陷阱将作为已筹集资金的现场计划的一部分（NOAAA-MMS）进行了计划（NOAAA-MMS）。然而，这两个陷阱的偶然性仅位于NE的32个nmiles和81个nmiles，距最近的Deepwater Horizo​​n事件的WSW，并继续从海底释放石油。 NOAA进行的连续监测表明，这两个研究地点中的至少一个在4月底之前在海面上的油排放覆盖，并且两个地点现在都被至少在中等浓度的碳氢化合物±分散剂中覆盖。然而，在这一点上仍然是不建立的，这是深度正在发生的事情，以及在墨西哥海湾的影响，尤其是其原始和独特的深水珊瑚/化学合成管菌群。因此，该提议的目的是两个方面。 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 had previously targeted as being of most significance in terms of deepwater coral/chemosynthetic tubeworm ecosystems.如果我们不实现这一目标，我们的时间序列将在7月2日结束。其次，并预计将有许多其他PI都希望进行的其他研究，我们寻求足够的资金来进行这些样本（加上我们早期部署的样本的最初表征），一旦他们被恢复了（2010年11月已经资助了Cruise）。具体而言，我们预计会生成一套存档的样品，其中包含有关质量和生物通量的核心信息（包括无机和有机碳含量）和初步？手指打印？在每个样本中存在的任何碳氢化合物特征中。Broader的影响：墨西哥湾的新兴环境影响是社会上的极大关注，对未来的深水资源提取和国家的能源供应都具有影响。但是，当前要向GOM系统引起的大多数注意力都必须集中在最容易获得数据的浅层上海上。偶然地，这项工作代表了一个项目，该项目可以独特地阐明可能赋予杰出和原始的深水生态系统所赋予的效果，靠近深水地平线。由于我们的合并分析只需要一小部分样本，我们将仔细归档每个样本的其余部分，以进行更广泛的研究，此外，我们将广泛，迅速地宣传我们的结果，以进行增值研究。例如，这项工作显然与（例如）R.Camilli（Whoi）和C.Fisher（Penn.State）开发的其他项目具有相关性和潜力。我们的小组准备与所有这些有趣的科学派对合作，并且还与电影团队（位于圣塔芭芭拉的迈克·德格鲁伊（Mike Degruy））保持联系，以响应工作很有趣（尽管我们对他们没有承诺，如果另一个团队更适合这项工作）。