Time Series Particle Flux Measurements in the Sargasso Sea

该奖项为海洋通量计划（OFP）提供了额外的三年支持。该计划于1978年首次建立，旨在测量马尾藻海深海中从表层到深海的粒子输出通量，并代表了同类中最长和最连续的粒子通量时间序列。该计划和时间序列记录将继续帮助海洋学界回答有关深海粒子通量与气候以及生物、物理和化学海洋学过程之间关系的问题。在过去，OFP提供了与季节性、偶发性（例如，物理和气象强迫）和气候模式。展望未来，该计划将利用越来越先进的仪器和分析工具来解决有关从表面沉入深海的物质及其控制的问题。OFP为从高中到博士的学生提供教育和培训。水平和支持早期职业研究人员。OFP的时间序列代表了43年的，几乎连续的记录，重点是在深海中的粒子通量。随着越来越多的数据可从延长记录，研究人员可以把观察到的地球化学模式的角度来理解气候和海洋功能之间的相互作用。附近补充性水文站S、百慕大大西洋时间序列、百慕大试验台系泊（1994-2007年）、都铎山大气塔和百慕大其他取样方案提供的数据为研究上层海洋物理学和海洋地球化学以及深海海洋地球化学过程提供了更多机会。OFP记录的时间越来越长，足以研究与涡旋环流和平流过程的深层通量联系。OFP的档案是一个无与伦比的资源，用于回顾性研究时间趋势和不断变化的海洋的生物地球化学后果，包括海洋酸化的未来影响。随着OFP走向未来，越来越复杂的OFP系泊仪器ADCP海流剖面和反向散射; MicroCAT温度、盐度和氧气测量）以及数字成像和分析工具的进展（化学的和基因组的）来探测回收的焊剂材料继续揭示新的，关于海洋粒子通量及其控制的基本信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

This award provides an additional three years of support for the Oceanic Flux Program (OFP). This program was first established in 1978 to measure the export flux of particles from the surface to the deep ocean in the deep Sargasso Sea and represents the longest and most continuous particle flux time-series of its kind. This program and the time-series record will continue to help the oceanographic community to answer questions about the relationship between deep ocean particle flux and climate and biological, physical, and chemical oceanographic processes. In the past, the OFP has provided evidence for coupling between the upper and deep ocean processes linked to seasonal, episodic (e.g., physical and meteorological forcing) and climate patterns. Looking to the future, this program will utilize increasingly advanced instrumentation and analytical tools to address questions about the material that sinks from the surface to deep ocean and its controls. The OFP provides education and training for students from the high school to Ph.D. level and supports early career researchers. The OFP time-series represents a 43-year, nearly continuous record focused on particle fluxes in the deep ocean. With increasingly more data available from the lengthening record, investigators can put observed biogeochemical patterns into perspective to understand the interplay between climate and ocean functioning. The availability of data from complementary nearby Hydrostation S, the Bermuda Atlantic Time-Series (BATS), the Bermuda Testbed Mooring (1994-2007), the Tudor Hill atmospheric tower and other Bermuda sampling programs provide additional opportunities to study upper ocean physics and biogeochemistry coupled with deep ocean biogeochemical processes. The OFP record is becoming long enough to study deep flux linkages with gyre circulation and advective processes. The OFP’s archive is an unparalleled resource for retrospective studies of temporal trends and the biogeochemical consequences of a changing ocean, including future impacts of ocean acidification. As the OFP heads into the future, increasingly sophisticated OFP mooring instrumentation (ADCP current profiling and backscatter; MicroCAT temperature, salinity, and oxygen measurements) and advances in digital imaging and analytical tools (both chemical and genomic) to probe the recovered flux materials continue to reveal novel, fundamental information about the oceanic particle flux and its controls.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.