A novel technology to understand environmental changes in marine sediments

了解海洋沉积物环境变化的新技术

• 批准号: MR/X035387/1
• 负责人: Anna Lichtschlag
• 金额: $ 164.44万
• 依托单位: NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY CENTRE
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FX035387%2F1
• 关键词: novel; technology; understand; environmental; changes

It is well established that the ocean is of enormous importance as it has an impact on climate, weather, global food security, public health and the economy; however, currently the increasing pressure on the ocean results in unseen levels of pollution and alterations of globally important chemical cycles. From the coast to the deep sea the ocean floor is largely covered by loosely aggregated sediments. These sediments form one of the largest bioreactors on Earth and play a crucial role in the state and health of the marine environment as they convert, store and release chemical compounds that affect and control life. For example, they promote the production of potent greenhouse gases and are a major sink for oxygen, but also recycle nutrients and retain pollutants. These biogeochemical reactions lead to steep gradients of chemical compounds in the upper centimetre to decimetre of the sediments, which can be used to understand the processes proceeding in the sediment, their effects on the global biogeochemical cycles and their impact on the marine environment. However, with traditional analysis methods these gradients can often not be properly resolved, both spatially and temporally, and they are often disturbed during the collection of the sediment; in addition, these measurements are costly and time-consuming.In the SANDMAN project I will develop a new instrument to measure gradients of important biogeochemical compounds, such as nutrients (nitrate, phosphate), metals (iron) and carbonate system parameters (total alkalinity) directly within the seafloor sediment, in particular the porewater, by combining cutting-edge Lab-on-Chip sensors with deep sea platform technology that can operate in extreme environments in the oceans over longer periods of time. The Lab-On-Chip sensors, which use miniaturized standard laboratory analyses on an automated microfluidic platform, are developed at the National Oceanography Centre and only recently became available for longer-term applications. These sensors are ideal for measuring the chemistry of porewater directly in the sediment as they are very energy efficient and can be deployed for up to a year and only use very little sample volume, hence the steep gradients in the sediment can easily be resolved. During the SANDMAN project I will lead the sensor adaptation and adjustment of the hardware for conditions in sediments, the design of a fluid sampling system to separate the porewater from the solid phase of the sediment and the combination of these components in a unique seafloor instrument. The functionality of this instrument will first be tested in a controlled laboratory environment, then in a costal test station and afterwards it will be used to answer scientifically important questions about the processes linked to nutrient and metal recycling and carbon degradation in currently underexplored areas such as permeable costal sediments and deep-sea trenches. This unique observing instrument can transform our capacity for the urgently needed benthic biogeochemical analysis from a human-dependent, single-point and costly sampling to a technology-based long-term, high-quality and reliable approach for remote biogeochemical measurements. The SANDMAN system will be widely applicable from the coast to the deep sea and from pole to pole for marine monitoring and industrial applications. Thus it will pave the way to novel synoptic seafloor observations, providing data to support and inform stakeholders, such as government/non-governmental organisations, industries, scientists and the general public, on environmental health and potential hazards.

众所周知，海洋对气候，天气，全球粮食安全，公共卫生和经济有影响，因此海洋非常重要。但是，目前，对海洋的压力增加导致看不见的污染水平和全球重要化学周期的改变。从海岸到深海，海底被松散的沉积物覆盖。这些沉积物构成了地球上最大的生物反应器之一，并在海洋环境的状态和健康中起着至关重要的作用，因为它们会转换，存储和释放影响和控制寿命的化学化合物。例如，它们促进了有效的温室气体的生产，并且是氧气的主要水槽，但也是回收养分并保留污染物。这些生物地球化学反应导致上厘米至十分限的陡峭的化合物陡峭的梯度，可用于了解沉积物中的过程，它们对全球生物地球化学周期的影响及其对海洋环境的影响。但是，通过传统的分析方法，这些梯度通常在空间和时间上都无法正确解决，并且在沉积物收集期间通常会受到干扰。此外，这些测量值昂贵且耗时。可以在更长的时间内在海洋的极端环境中运行。在自动化的微流体平台上使用微型标准实验室分析的实验室传感器是在国家海洋学中心开发的，直到最近才用于长期应用。这些传感器非常适合直接在沉积物中测量孔隙水的化学性能，因为它们非常节能，并且可以部署长达一年，并且只使用很少的样品体积，因此很容易解决沉积物中陡峭的梯度。在桑德曼项目中，我将领导传感器适应和调整硬件的沉积物条件，以设计流体采样系统，以将孔水与沉积物的固相分开，并在独特的海底仪器中结合这些组件。该仪器的功能将首先在受控的实验室环境中进行测试，然后在肋骨测试站中进行测试，然后将其用于回答有关与当前未经渗透的可渗透的costal Meatents和Deep-Sea Trench相关的营养和金属回收和碳降解的过程的科学重要问题。这种独特的观察工具可以将我们急需的底栖生物地球化学分析的能力从人类依赖，单点和昂贵的抽样转变为基于技术的长期，高质量和可靠的生物地球化学测量方法。桑德曼系统将在海岸到深海广泛适用，从极点到杆，用于海洋监测和工业应用。因此，它将为新型的天气海底观察铺平道路，提供数据以支持和告知利益相关者，例如政府/非政府组织，行业，科学家和公众，涉及环境健康和潜在危害。