Identification of biogeochemical provinces in the Southern Ocean: spatial modeling of biological, geochemical and sedimentological data

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Compared to biogenic silica, little is known about benthic particulate organic carbon fluxes in situ in the Southern Ocean, a key region for the global marine carbon cycle. Because of the lack of data, the Southern Ocean south of 60° is still excluded from the global carbon budget calculations. Our knowledge of rates and spatio-temporal variability is patchy, therefore coupling of these processes into regional or global models remains difficult and error prone. Meanwhile the public availability and dissemination of biological, geochemical and sedimentological research data as well as multivariate analysis methods applied in marine sciences is undergoing major developments, towards improving interdisciplinary data analysis. This proposal aims to model benthic particulate organic carbon fluxes and to use correlated parameters as biogenic silica, benthic organisms and other environmental parameters, that mimic the geochemical situation as proxies. Biogeochemical provinces in the Southern Ocean combining in situ measurements, experiments and multivariate models, will indicate areas of defined oxygen and carbon fluxes by GIS-based statistical modeling methodology. These provinces are also needed to quantify potential species occurrence and biomass and can be used to optimize sampling strategies during scientific expeditions. The spatial distribution and the dimensions of the Southern Ocean provinces will reduce the gap of knowledge regarding the global geochemical cycles. Furthermore, the exploration of the spatial variation regarding the location and extent of the provinces which are to be expected due to global warming contribute to the prediction of quantitative changes in geochemical fluxes in the Southern Ocean.