Time Series Particle Flux Measurements in the Sargasso Sea

该合同为海洋通量计划（OFP）提供了额外三年的支持。该项目于1978年首次建立，用于测量深海马尾藻海中颗粒从表面到深海的出口通量，它代表了同类中最长和最连续的颗粒通量时间序列。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海洋生物、物理和化学过程之间关系的问题。过去，OFP已经提供了与季节性、偶发性（如物理和气象强迫）和气候模式相关的上层和深海过程之间耦合的证据。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海面沉入深海及其控制的物质的问题。OFP为从高中到博士水平的学生提供教育和培训，并支持早期职业研究人员。OFP时间序列代表了43年来几乎连续的深海颗粒通量记录。随着越来越多的数据从不断延长的记录中获得，研究人员可以把观察到的生物地球化学模式放在正确的角度来理解气候和海洋功能之间的相互作用。来自附近互补的S站、百慕大大西洋时间序列（BATS）、百慕大试验台系泊（1994-2007）、都铎山大气塔和其他百慕大采样项目的数据的可用性为研究上层海洋物理和生物地球化学以及深海生物地球化学过程提供了额外的机会。OFP记录变得足够长，可以研究环流和平流过程之间的深层通量联系。OFP的档案是对海洋变化的时间趋势和生物地球化学后果进行回顾性研究的无与伦比的资源，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电流剖面和后向散射；MicroCAT温度、盐度和氧气测量）和数字成像和分析工具（化学和基因组）的进步，探测回收的通量材料，继续揭示关于海洋颗粒通量及其控制的新颖、基本信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.