RUI: OCE-RIG: Decadal climate, carbon and nutrient variability: New insights from deep-sea bamboo coral records on the California margin

在这个项目中，研究人员将研究古海洋学记录，以研究快速气候变化对海洋生产力、营养循环和碳循环的影响。为实现这一目标，调查员将建立中级水营养物质浓度的古海洋学重建，并提供第一个连续的高分辨率(年际-年代际尺度)中级水生物地球化学记录，这将扩展现代仪器记录。这些记录将促进我们对大气/表层海洋气候快速变化、上升流、生产力以及深海碳和营养循环的机制的理解。这位研究人员将通过在一所小型文理学院建立一个新的珊瑚地球化学研究项目，将这项研究整合到教育活动中，并支持在本科和高中水平上代表不足的群体参与海洋科学。气候变化对上升流、养分可获得性、碳输出和海洋生物地球化学等过程的影响目前知之甚少。古海洋学记录可以为过去联系气候、碳循环和海洋氧合的机制提供关键的视角。研究人员将利用深海竹珊瑚的高分辨率(年际-年代际)地球化学记录，重建过去400年来营养循环和碳输出的过去变化。这项研究集中在一个中心问题上：深海营养生物地球化学和加州当前系统中的碳循环是如何受到气候变化的影响的？保存在竹珊瑚骨架中的痕量元素比值(Ba/Ca)将被用来确定表层-海洋-大气气候的变化是否影响十年时间尺度上的中间水团营养循环。特别是，这项研究将密切调查过去400年，重点是：(1)验证加州洋流系统(CCS)竹珊瑚(BA/Ca)中已建立的中间水分营养指标的使用，(2)了解CCS中中间水分营养物质与初级生产力之间的关系，以及(3)CCS出口生产与过去快速气候变化(如太平洋年代际涛动和厄尔尼诺南方涛动)的关系。一套独特的珊瑚档案允许跨越中间水域(总共792-2055米水深)的深度横断面，并与仪器记录直接比较。

In this project, the investigator will examine paleoceanographic records to study how ocean productivity, nutrient cycling, and carbon cycling have been impacted by rapid climate variability. To achieve this aim, the investigator will develop paleoceanographic reconstructions of intermediate water nutrient concentration and provide the first continuous high-resolution (interannual-decadal scale) records of intermediate water biogeochemistry that will extend modern instrumental records. These records will advance our understanding of mechanisms linking rapid variations in atmospheric/surface ocean climate, upwelling, productivity, and deep-sea carbon and nutrient cycling. The investigator will integrate the research into educational activities by establishing a new coral geochemistry research program at a small liberal arts college and support participation of under-represented groups in ocean sciences at both the undergraduate and high-school level.The impact of climate change on processes such as upwelling, nutrient availability, carbon export and ocean biogeochemistry is currently poorly understood. Paleoceanographic records can provide critical perspective on the mechanisms linking climate, the carbon cycle, and ocean oxygenation in the past. The investigator will use high-resolution (interannual-decadal) geochemical records from deep-sea bamboo corals to reconstruct past changes in nutrient cycling and carbon export for the past 400 years. The study is focused around a central question: How are deep-sea nutrient biogeochemistry and carbon cycling in the California Current System affected by climate change? Trace elemental ratios preserved in bamboo coral skeleton (Ba/Ca) will be used to determine whether changes in surface-ocean-atmospheric climate affect intermediate water mass nutrient cycling on decadal timescales. In particular, this study will closely investigate the last 400 years with a focus on: (1) validating the use of an established intermediate water nutrient proxy in California Current System (CCS) bamboo corals (Ba/Ca), (2) understanding the relationship between intermediate water nutrients and primary productivity in the CCS, and (3) the relationship between CCS export production and rapid climate change in the past (e.g. the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the El Niño Southern Oscillation). A unique suite of coral archives allows for a depth transect across intermediate waters (792-2055m water depth, in total) and direct comparison with instrumental records.