Collaborative Research: Understanding Environmental and Ecological Controls on Carbon Export and Flux Attenuation near Bermuda

该奖项支持的研究将量化碳进入百慕大大西洋时间序列站点（BATS）中层区（200 - 1000米深度）的运输以及碳的命运。 在BATS的化学，生物和物理测量将结合一个机械模型，旨在确定有机碳出口到这些中间深度的关键控制。 模型数据合成的首要目标是识别和理解碳通量途径的控制。 在本项目中，将使用一个数据指导模型来比较颗粒沉降、溶解有机碳混合和生物主动运输的相对重要性。 更广泛的影响包括一个视频游戏，访问/从特许学校，为学生提供服务，从地球科学代表性不足的社区，本科生通过伍兹霍尔合作伙伴教育计划的监督，一个研究生的建议，和一个博士后。 这两个PI都是女性早期职业科学家，其中一个来自海洋学中代表性不足的群体。一个机械生物地球化学模型，能够同化中层浮游动物和异养细菌的关键代谢和生理速率和存量（200-1000米）将被建造，评估和利用，目的是量化和比较颗粒沉降，溶解有机碳（DOC）混合，通过浮游动物昼夜垂直迁移，呼吸CO2、颗粒物和DOC的输出活跃。 此外，有机碳在中层的命运将通过比较细菌与浮游动物呼吸的特点。 这些通量的相对大小的表征将提供一个出口途径的环境和生态控制的观点和有机碳出口从真光层到中层在这个位置的最终命运。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The research supported by this award will quantify transport of Carbon into, and Carbon’s fate within, the mesopelagic zone (200 – 1000m depth) at the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series Site (BATS). Chemical, biological, and physical measurements at BATS will be combined with a mechanistic model designed to identify key controls on the export of organic carbon into these intermediate depths. The over-arching goal of the model-data synthesis is to identify and understand controls on the C-flux pathways . In this project, a data-guided model will be used to compare the relative importance of particle sinking, mixing of dissolved organic carbon, and active transport by organisms. Broader impacts include a video game, visits to/from a charter school which serves students from communities underrepresented in Geosciences, supervision of undergraduates via the Woods Hole Partnership Education Program, advising of one graduate student, and of one postdoc. Both PIs are female early-career scientists, one from a group underrepresented in Oceanography.A mechanistic biogeochemical model capable of assimilating key metabolic and physiological rates and stocks of zooplankton and heterotrophic bacteria in the mesopelagic zone (200-1000 m) will be constructed, evaluated, and utilized with the goal of quantifying and comparing fluxes of particle sinking, mixing of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and active export, by diel vertical migration of zooplankton, of respiratory CO2, particles and DOC. In addition, the fate of organic carbon in the mesopelagic will be characterized by comparing bacterial versus zooplankton respiration. Characterization of the relative magnitudes of these fluxes will provide a view of environmental and ecological controls on export pathways and on the ultimate fate of organic carbon exported from the euphotic to the mesopelagic zone at this location.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.