Iron cycling in bioturbated sediments - Fluxes, diagenetic redistribution, and isotopic signatures

溶解铁是海洋表层光合微藻的重要营养元素，海水中低浓度的溶解铁会限制其生长。 由于微藻是海洋食物网的基础，科学家们努力提高我们对海洋中铁的可用性和不同铁来源的重要性的理解。铁通过河流、地下水和风吹尘埃进入海洋;然而，从海底释放的铁可能是一个额外的来源，但这种贡献并不为人所知。在这个项目中，来自纽约斯托尼布鲁克的州立大学（SUNY-SB）的科学家将研究海洋沉积物和底栖生物（如穴居蛤和蠕虫）中的化学反应如何影响铁从海底运输到上覆水。动物通过洞穴抽水以获得氧气，并在此过程中将溶解的铁从沉积物中运输到上覆水中。我们将分析泥质和桑迪沉积物以及进出动物洞穴的水中的铁浓度，并确定铁的同位素组成。不同来源的铁可能具有不同的同位素组成，这可能有助于追踪海洋不同地区发现的这种元素的起源。更好地了解海洋海底的铁循环将有助于我们更好地预测环境条件的变化，例如由于人类的影响，将如何影响海洋中的重要过程，例如微藻的初级生产。该项目将允许两名博士生和几名本科生参加实验室实验工作、研究航行期间的沉积物取样以及沉积物和水的化学分析培训。本科生的参与将通过SUNY-SB的本科生研究和创造性活动（URECA）计划来促进。此外，与科学和技术入学计划（STEP）合作，将向历史上代表性不足和经济上处于不利地位的高中生提供夏季模块“活埋”。它结合了实地采样，实验室实验，数据分析和科学交流。学生将建立自己的“海底蚂蚁农场”，并使用摄影设备记录生活在沉积物中的动物的活动。学生将接受使用图像分析软件制作延时电影的培训，并将在课程的最后一天展示。将通过每年在纽约海洋科学节“淹没”和纽约州立大学地球庆祝日“Earthstock”上亲自演示“海底切片”，实时显示生物体或用注射器注水在沉积物中引起的压力动态，促进公众宣传。该项目支持两名早期职业科学家的进步和发展，而之前没有NSF的研究支持。溶解的铁是海洋表面光合微藻的重要营养物质，可以限制它们的生产力。铁是从多种来源提供给海洋的，包括河流、地下水、热液喷口和从海底释放。 该项目将填补我们在海底来源知识方面的关键空白，并强调底栖生物、底层水氧浓度、沉积物有机质含量和沉积物渗透性对大陆边沉积物中铁循环和同位素再分布的生物扰动的相互影响。具体来说，我们将获得一个机械的理解的影响变量O2浓度内的动物洞穴（作为灌溉活动和沉积环境的函数）和上覆水中的（响应大尺度环境变化）对溶解铁通量和再降水的影响，与这些过程有关的同位素分馏，以及水体中溶解铁和沉积物中保留的颗粒铁的同位素特征的后果。该项目将大大促进对沉积铁循环的理解，并利用铁同位素来限制海洋底栖铁源的数量和动态。 对沉积铁循环的进一步了解将增强对生物地球化学过程（如初级生产）对快速变化的环境条件的未来响应的预测，并从沉积记录中保存的自生铁矿物中最佳地推断过去的条件。这方面的知识是特别宝贵的大陆架环境，人为影响正在改变沉积模式的有机碳和扩大氧气最低区，这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

Dissolved iron (Fe) is an important nutrient for photosynthetic microalgae in the surface ocean and low concentrations in seawater can limit their growth. Because microalgae are the basis of marine food webs, scientists strive to improve our understanding of Fe availability in the oceans and the importance of different iron sources. Iron enters the ocean via rivers, groundwater, and wind-blown dust; however, release from the seafloor can be an additional source but this contribution is not well known. In this project, scientists from the State University of New York, Stony Brook (SUNY-SB) will investigate how chemical reactions in ocean sediments and bottom-dwelling organisms, such as burrowing clams and worms, affect the transport of Fe from the seafloor into the overlying water. Animals pump water through their burrows to obtain oxygen and in the process, transport dissolved Fe out of the sediment and into the overlying water. We will analyze the Fe concentration in both muddy and sandy sediment and in the water that enters and exits animal burrows, as well as determine the isotope composition of the Fe. Different sources of Fe can have different isotope compositions which may help trace the origin of this element found in different parts of the ocean. An improved understanding of Fe cycling at the ocean seafloor will help us to better predict how changing environmental conditions, for example due to human influence, will affect important processes in the ocean, such as primary production by microalgae. The project will allow two PhD students and several undergraduate students to take part in laboratory experimental work, sediment sampling during research cruises and train in chemical analysis of sediment and water. Undergraduate student involvement will be facilitated through the Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URECA) program at SUNY-SB. Also, in collaboration with the Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP), a summer module "Buried Alive" will be offered to historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged high school students. It combines field sampling, laboratory experimentation, data analyses, and scientific communication. Students will set-up their own "seafloor ant farms" and record the activities of animals living in the sediment using photographic equipment. Students will be trained in using image analysis software to produce time-lapse movies which they will present on the final day of the program. Public outreach will be fostered through annual hands-on demonstrations of "seafloor slices" at the New York Marine Science Festival "Submerge" and at SUNY-SB earth celebration day "Earthstock" with real-time visualizations of pressure dynamics in the sediment induced by living organisms or by injecting water with syringes. The project supports the advancement and development of two Early Career Scientists with no prior NSF research support.Dissolved Fe is an important nutrient for photosynthetic microalgae in the surface ocean and can limit their productivity. Iron is supplied to the ocean from multiple sources, including rivers, groundwater, hydrothermal vents, and by release from the seabed. This project will fill key gaps in our knowledge of seabed sources, and emphasizes the interconnected effects of bioturbation by infaunal organisms, bottom water oxygen (O2) concentrations, sedimentary organic matter content, and sediment permeability on iron cycling and isotopic redistribution in continental margin sediments. Specifically, we will gain a mechanistic understanding of the impact of variable O2 concentrations within infaunal burrows (as a function of irrigation activity and sedimentary setting) and in the overlying water (in response to large scale environmental change) on dissolved Fe fluxes and re-precipitation, the isotopic fractionation related to these processes, and the consequences for isotopic signatures of dissolved Fe in the water column and particulate Fe preserved in sediments. This project will significantly advance understanding of sedimentary Fe cycling and the use of Fe isotopes to constrain the magnitude and dynamics of the benthic Fe source to the ocean. Improved understanding of sedimentary Fe cycle will enhance prediction of future responses of biogeochemical processes such as primary production to rapidly changing environmental conditions and to optimally infer past conditions from authigenic Fe minerals preserved in the sedimentary record. This knowledge is particularly valuable with regard to continental shelf environments where anthropogenic effects are altering deposition patterns of organic carbon and expanding oxygen minimum zones.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.