Collaborative Research: Management and Implementation of the U.S. Arctic GEOTRACES Study

为了实现其“确定控制海洋中关键微量元素和同位素分布的过程和量化通量，并建立这些分布对不断变化的环境条件的敏感性”的目标，国际GEOTRACES计划将于2015年开始在北冰洋进行为期数年的研究。在一个气候变暖和一般环境变化正在以惊人的速度发生的地区，这样的研究对于了解北冰洋地球化学的现状以及随着区域生态系统继续变暖并影响全球海洋和气候条件而发展预测能力非常重要。获得该奖项资助的三位研究人员将管理一个庞大的美国科学家团队，他们将通过常规的NSF提案程序竞争，为美国的努力贡献他们在海洋痕量金属、同位素和碳循环地球化学方面的独特专业知识。这三名经理将负责安排和监督海上技术服务，如水文测量、营养分析、所有参与者所依赖的甲板上采样活动的全天候管理，以及组织所有巡航前后的技术支持和科学会议。管理团队还将在阿拉斯加的诺姆和巴罗为公众开展教育外展活动，向这些社区解释这项研究的意义，并从居民那里了解到海洋系统的变化。该项目本身将为一些博士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中心，本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GEOTRACES北冰洋倡议的贡献，该项目将成为一项正在进行的多国努力的一部分，以进一步了解世界海洋中微量元素和同位素的科学知识。这支美国探险队将在2015年的北方夏季集中在北冰洋西部。科学团队将由该奖项资助的管理团队和来自美国学术机构的科学家团队组成，他们将成功竞争并获得美国国家科学基金会资助的特定科学项目，及时参与巡航计划的最后阶段。巡航轨道段将包括白令海峡，楚科奇大陆架和深加拿大盆地。几个台站将被指定为所谓的超级台站，用于深入研究大气气溶胶、海冰、沉积物化学以及水柱过程。总的来说，这一套协调的国际考察将包括部署来自6个国家（美国、加拿大、德国、瑞典、英国和俄罗斯）的可结冰研究船，穿越北冰洋的不同部分，并应用最先进的方法来揭示微量金属和同位素的复杂动态，这些微量金属和同位素是海洋和生物地球化学示踪剂的重要组成部分。

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.