The Distribution of Iron and Other Reactive Trace Metals in Contrasting Productivity Zones of the Antarctic Polar Front During the U.S. JGOFS Southern Oceans Process Study

9530961措施南极水域的一般特点是浮游植物存量低，初级生产率低，尽管水柱中有丰富的无机营养物。许多研究人员推测这些水域缺乏铁来解释这一悖论，但没有确凿的证据表明铁的重要性或其在刺激生产力方面的机制。JGOFS南大洋过程研究的主要目标之一是揭示调节初级生产力的幅度和变异的因素和过程，并利用这些知识来确定南大洋对过去和未来自然发生的气候变化的响应。在这项研究中，主要调查将测量南大洋极地锋面区各种生产力制度水柱中的铁和其他活性微量金属。这些测量结果将用于进一步了解南极水域铁的供应和分布，并与其他P.I.的测量结果相一致它在影响微生物食物网结构和水柱中各种生物地球化学循环动力学方面的重要性。随着铁在生物过程的量级和顺序中所起的复杂作用得到更好的理解，这些测量将在铁及其生物效应的相互作用以及间接影响全球生物地球化学循环的建模中变得越来越重要。

9530961 Measures Antarctic waters are generally characterised by low standing stocks of phytoplankton and low rates of primary production despite the abundance of inorganic nutrients in the water column. Many researchers have speculated on the deficiency of iron in these waters to explain this paradox but no conclusive evidence of the importance of iron or its mechanisms in stimulating productivity have been presented. The major goals of the JGOFS Southern Ocean Process Study are, in part, to unravel the factors and processes that regulate the magnitude and variability of primary productivity and use this knowledge to determine the response of the Southern Ocean to naturally occurring climate changes both in the past and in the future. In this study, the principal investigation will measure iron and other reactive trace metals in the water column of various productivity regimes of the Polar frontal region of the Southern Ocean. These measurements will be used to further our understanding of the supply and distribution of iron in Antarctic waters and, in concert with the measurements of other P.I.'s its importance in affecting the structure of the microbial food web and the dynamics of the various biogeochemical cycles in the water column. As the complex role that iron plays in the magnitude and sequence of biological processes becomes better understood, these measurements will grow in importance in modelling the interaction of iron and its biological effects and indirectly, its impact in global biogeochemical cycles.