Biogeochemistry of Carbon and Silicon on the Antarctic Shelf: Particle Flux and Taxonomic Studies

本项目是对罗斯海水柱中生物硅垂直通量和溶解速率研究的更新，是罗斯海水柱和沉积物中生物硅和有机碳循环协调研究的一部分。南极深海和大陆架环境是全球海洋二氧化硅积累的主要储存库，并主导着全球二氧化硅收支。罗斯海是一个特别反常的地区，在那里，大量的生物成因二氧化硅积聚在现代沉积物中，而表面的生产速度通常低于全球平均水平。此外，海洋硅和碳循环之间通常的相似性似乎在南极洲周围并不成立，这两个循环是分离的，因为现代沉积物中颗粒碳沉积的速率非常低。整个项目是对生产、垂直输送、溶解和沉积过程的综合研究，使用系泊仪器和由R/V POLAR DUKE在罗斯海的一系列样带进行的直接观测，于1989年至1991年期间进行。垂直通量和溶解速率是通过在三个系泊的每个系泊的两个深度部署时间序列沉积物捕集器来测量的，为期14个月。这些系泊装置与透射仪和电流计阵列相结合，可以测量和表征整个生产和沉积年周期中颗粒物的垂直和水平通量。这次更新的目标是恢复一个重新部署了两年的沉积物捕集器，完成对目前所有水柱和沉积物捕集器样本的分析，并与在这个项目中合作的其他调查人员合作，综合所有项目数据集。

This project is the renewal of a study of the vertical flux and the rate of dissolution of biogenic silica in the water column of the Ross Sea, and is part of a coordinated study of the biogenic silica and organic carbon cycling in the water column and the sediments of the Ross Sea. The antarctic deep sea and continental shelf environment is the major repository for silica accumulation in the global ocean, and dominates the global silica budget. The Ross Sea is a particularly anomalous area in which large amounts of biogenic silica are accumulating in modern sediments, while the surface production rates are generally below the global average. Moreover the usual similarity between the oceanic silicon and carbon cycle does not appear to hold around Antarctica, and the two cycles are decoupled in that the rate of particulate carbon deposition in the modern sediment is very low. The overall project is an integrated study of the production, vertical transport, dissolution, and deposition processes, using moored instrumentation and direct observations in a series of transects in the Ross Sea by R/V POLAR DUKE, carried out between 1989 and 1991. The vertical flux and dissolution rates were measured by deploying time-series sediment traps at two depths on each of three moorings for a period of fourteen months. In conjunction with transmissometers and current meter arrays, these moorings will allow the measurement and characterization of both vertical and horizontal fluxes of particulate matter during a complete annual cycle of production and sedimentation. The objectives of this renewal are to recover one sediment trap that was redeployed for an additional two years, to complete the analysis of all water column and sediment trap samples that are currently in hand, and to produce a synthesis of all project data sets in cooperation with the other investigators cooperating in this project.