Latitudinal Variations of Particle Fluxes in the Southern Ocean: A Bottom Tethered Sediment Trap Array Experiment

这个研究项目是美国联合全球海洋通量研究（JGOFS）南大洋项目的一部分，旨在(1)更好地了解南大洋有机和无机碳通量，(2)确定调节这些通量的大小和变化的物理、生态和生物地球化学因素和过程，以及(3)将这些通量置于当代全球碳循环的背景下。这项工作是“南大洋实验”（Southern Ocean Experiment）中44个合作项目之一。南大洋实验是在南极极地锋区（Antarctic Polar fronzone）以南进行的一项为期三年的努力，旨在追踪碳从空气-海洋界面通过整个水柱进入底部沉积物的有机和无机途径的流动。该实验将利用RVIB纳撒尼尔B.帕尔默和R/V汤普森。这一部分是由伍兹霍尔海洋研究所、俄勒冈州立大学和新西兰海洋研究所的科学家们合作进行的一项研究，涉及从上层海洋向下出口的颗粒形式的碳。这些观测资料将从一系列时间序列沉积物捕集器获得，并将进行分析，以确定从1996年南部初夏开始的18个月期间从副热带锋向罗斯海的出口通量。该测量计划将每年两次浮游植物大量繁殖。南大洋提供了一个独特的机会来研究由海洋锋面划分的不同生物地球化学海洋带中控制出口通量的过程。锋面的温度变化与营养物浓度和浮游生物生态梯度一致，导致浮游植物群落吸收钙硅比的纬度变化较大。这项实验将提供有关生物泵在南大洋如何运作以及它可能如何影响大气二氧化碳水平的数据。观察到的有机碳、氮、无机碳、生物二氧化硅和氧化铝的出口流量是共同目标基金方案目标的核心。

96-14028 Dymond This research project is part of the US Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) Southern Ocean Program aimed at (1) a better understanding of the fluxes of carbon, both organic and inorganic, in the Southern Ocean, (2) identifying the physical, ecological and biogeochemical factors and processes which regulate the magnitude and variability of these fluxes, and (3) placing these fluxes into the context of the contemporary global carbon cycle. This work is one of forty-four projects that are collaborating in the Southern Ocean Experiment, a three-year effort south of the Antarctic Polar Frontal Zone to track the flow of carbon through its organic and inorganic pathways from the air-ocean interface through the entire water column into the bottom sediment. The experiment will make use of the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer and the R/V Thompson. This component, a collaborative study by scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Oregon State University, and the New Zealand Oceanographic Institution, concerns the export of particulate forms of carbon downward from the upper ocean. The observations will be obtained from an array of time- series sediment traps, and will be analyzed to quantify export fluxes from the Subtropical Front to the Ross Sea, over an 18- months period beginning the early austral summer of 1996. The measurement program will two annual phytoplankton blooms. The southern ocean provides a unique opportunity to investigate the processes controlling export flux in contrasting biogeochemical ocean zones demarcated by oceanic fronts. The temperature changes at the fronts coincide with gradients in nutrient concentrations and plankton ecology, resulting in a large latitudinal change in the ratio of calcium to silica taken up by the phytoplankton communities. This experiment will provide data on how the biological pump operates in the Southern Ocean and how it could potentially impact the level of atmospheric c arbon dioxide. The observed export fluxes of organic carbon, nitrogen, inorganic carbon, biogenic silica and alumina are central to the goals of the JGOFS program.