Collaborative Research: Biogeochemical Cycling of Particulate and Dissolved Organic Matter in the Arctic Ocean Using Molecular Markers

该项目结合了实地和实验方法，研究了波弗特海和楚科奇海中溶解、颗粒和沉积有机质的来源、转化、运输和命运。该项目将利用生物分子有机标记及其过程的特异性来了解北极西部大陆架是如何产生、代谢和封存碳的，这是SBI项目的核心问题。拟议的研究与其他SBI二期项目以及国际项目的拟议研究密切相关，以提供C和N循环的综合泛北极观点。本研究的中心假设如下：1)在大陆架-盆地边界和内部海洋物理运输的时间尺度上（数年至数十年），陆相有机质含有特定的、保守的生物标志物，可以追踪河流排放；2)陆架水域的生物加工过程决定了沉积物中沉积并输出到盆地的有机质的分子特征；3)间歇性的海洋初级生产为底栖生物生产提供燃料。

The project combines field and experimental approaches to investigate the sources,transformations, transport, and fates of dissolved, particulate and sedimentary organic matter in theBeaufort and Chukchi Seas. This project will take advantage of the specificity that molecular organicmarkers of organisms and their processes can provide to understand how the Western Arctic shelvesproduce, metabolize and sequester carbon, a question central for the SBI program. The proposed studiesare closely linked with proposed research in other SBI phase II projects as well as international programs togive an integrated, pan-Arctic view of C and N cycling. The proposed research is directed by thefollowing central hypotheses: 1) On time scales of physical transport across the shelf-basin boundary and interior ocean (years to decades), terrestrial organic matter contains specific, conservative biomarkers that trace riverine discharge; 2) Biological processing in shelf waters dictates the molecular signatures of organic matter deposited in sediments and exported to the Basin; 3) Episodic marine primary production fuels benthic production.