Collaborative Research: Management and Implementation of the US Arctic GEOTRACES Study

为了实现其目标“确定控制海洋中关键微量元素和同位素分布的过程和通量，并确定这些分布对不断变化的环境条件的敏感性”，国际地球物理研究计划将于2015年开始在北冰洋进行为期数年的研究。在气候变暖和总体环境变化正在以惊人的速度发生的区域，这样的研究对于了解北冰洋地球化学的现状和发展预测能力非常重要，因为区域生态系统继续变暖并影响全球海洋和气候条件。获得该奖项资助的三名研究人员将管理一个庞大的美国科学家团队，他们将通过NSF的常规提案流程进行竞争，为美国的努力贡献自己在海洋痕量金属、同位素和碳循环地球化学方面的独特专业知识。这三名管理人员将负责安排和监督海上技术服务，如水文测量、营养分析和所有参与者所依赖的甲板上采样活动的全天候管理，并负责组织巡航前和巡航后的所有技术支持和科学会议。管理团队还将领导面向阿拉斯加州诺姆和巴罗的普通公众的教育外联活动，向这些社区解释这项研究的意义，并学习居民对观察到的海洋系统变化的见解。该项目本身将为一些博士后学生和博士后研究人员提供支持和培训。由于北冰洋是全球气候变化的震中，这项研究的结果有望提高目前预测区域和全球生态系统和气候系统功能变化的能力。作为美国对国际地球轨道系统北冰洋倡议的贡献，该项目将是正在进行的多国努力的一部分，目的是进一步了解世界海洋中的微量元素和同位素。这支美国探险队将于2015年夏季在北冰洋西部进行考察。科学团队将由通过该奖项资助的管理团队以及来自美国学术机构的科学家团队组成，他们将成功竞争并及时获得NSF特定科学项目的资金，以参与邮轮规划的最后阶段。邮轮航道部分将包括白令海峡、楚科奇大陆架和加拿大深水盆地。几个站将被指定为所谓的超级站，用于深入研究大气气溶胶、海冰、沉积物化学以及水柱过程。总而言之，这套协调的国际探险将包括部署来自6个国家(美国、加拿大、德国、瑞典、英国和俄罗斯)的结冰考察船横跨北冰洋的不同部分，并应用最先进的方法来解开作为海洋和生物地球化学示踪剂的重要的痕量金属和同位素的复杂动力学。

In pursuit of its goal "to identify processes and quantify fluxes that control the distributions of key trace elements and isotopes in the ocean, and to establish the sensitivity of these distributions to changing environmental conditions", in 2015 the International GEOTRACES Program will embark on several years of research in the Arctic Ocean. In a region where climate warming and general environmental change are occurring at amazing speed, research such as this is important for understanding the current state of Arctic Ocean geochemistry and for developing predictive capability as the regional ecosystem continues to warm and influence global oceanic and climatic conditions. The three investigators funded on this award, will manage a large team of U.S.scientists who will compete through the regular NSF proposal process to contribute their own unique expertise in marine trace metal, isotopic, and carbon cycle geochemistry to the U.S. effort. The three managers will be responsible for arranging and overseeing at-sea technical services such as hydrographic measurements, nutrient analyses, and around-the-clock management of on-deck sampling activites upon which all participants depend, and for organizing all pre- and post-cruise technical support and scientific meetings. The management team will also lead educational outreach activities for the general public in Nome and Barrow, Alaska, to explain the significance of the study to these communities and to learn from residents' insights on observed changes in the marine system. The project itself will provide for the support and training of a number of pre-doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers. Inasmuch as the Arctic Ocean is an epicenter of global climate change, findings of this study are expected to advance present capability to forecast changes in regional and globlal ecosystem and climate system functioning.As the United States' contribution to the International GEOTRACES Arctic Ocean initiative, this project will be part of an ongoing multi-national effort to further scientific knowledge about trace elements and isotopes in the world ocean. This U.S. expedition will focus on the western Arctic Ocean in the boreal summer of 2015. The scientific team will consist of the management team funded through this award plus a team of scientists from U.S. academic institutions who will have successfully competed for and received NSF funds for specific science projects in time to participate in the final stages of cruise planning. The cruise track segments will include the Bering Strait, Chukchi shelf, and the deep Canada Basin. Several stations will be designated as so-called super stations for intense study of atmospheric aerosols, sea ice, and sediment chemistry as well as water-column processes. In total, the set of coordinated international expeditions will involve the deployment of ice-capable research ships from 6 nations (US, Canada, Germany, Sweden, UK, and Russia) across different parts of the Arctic Ocean, and application of state-of-the-art methods to unravel the complex dynamics of trace metals and isotopes that are important as oceanographic and biogeochemical tracers in the sea.