Terrestrial Contribution to &13C of TOC Preserved in Deep- Sea Sediments

小行星9616851 确定海洋沉积物中的有机质有多少来自海洋初级生产，有多少来自陆地运输，是现代有机地球化学的主要问题之一。陆地对深海沉积物的贡献问题影响到我们对沉积记录演变的理解，包括其在了解过去和未来与全球碳和二氧化碳动态有关的气候趋势方面的用处。从陆地向深海的迁移是风成作用的，铁的迁移通常也是如此，因此甚至可能与控制海洋初级生产的因素有关。 在这项研究中，首席研究员将利用植物蜡分析和碳-13测量来估计若干深海地点沉积物中陆地和海洋碳的数量。他将使用现代海洋浮游生物和陆地植物材料的C-13和蜡化学作为尺度的端元，沿着该尺度可以放置任意沉积物的分析结果。这一办法将涉及制定和验证这一深海沉积物碳库定性方法。

9616851 Prahl Determining how much of the organic matter found in marine sediments originates from marine primary production and how much was transported from land is one of the major problems of modern organic geochemistry. The question of terrestrial contribution to deep-sea sediments impacts upon our understanding of the evolution of the sedimentary record, including its usefulness in understanding past, and future climatic trends in relation to the global dynamics of carbon and carbon dioxide. To the extent that transport from land to the deep ocean is aeolian, as is generally the case for the transport of iron, there may even be links with factors controlling oceanic primary production. In this study the principal investigator will use plant wax analysis and carbon-13 measurements to estimate the amounts of terrestrial and oceanic carbon in sediment from several deep-ocean sites. He will use the C-13 and wax chemistry of modern-day marine plankton and terrestrial plant materials as end-members of a scale along which analytical results for arbitrary sediments may be placed. The approach will involved development and validation of this method for characterizing the deep-sea sediment carbon pool.