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

该项目结合现场和实验方法，调查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、迁移和命运。该项目将利用生物及其过程的分子有机标记可提供的专一性，以了解北极西部大陆架如何产生、代谢和封存碳，这是履行机构方案的核心问题。拟议的研究与印度履行机构其他第二阶段项目以及国际项目的拟议研究密切相关，这些国际计划旨在提供关于碳和氮循环的综合、泛北极视角。拟议的研究以下列中心假设为指导：1)在跨越陆架-盆地边界和海洋内部的物理运输的时间尺度上(几年到几十年)，陆地有机质包含追踪河流排放的特定的、保守的生物标志物；2)陆架水域的生物处理决定了沉积在沉积物中并输出到盆地的有机质的分子特征；3)幕式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.