Is There an Ocean Primary Production Paradox(OP3)?

少营养海水（如百慕大附近海域）的初级生产和再矿化是海洋碳循环中至关重要的现象，在气候变化影响建模中占有重要地位。百慕大初级生产的地球化学限制，其特点是每年和较长的时间尺度，并基于三个根本不同的系统，导致对新的、净群落和出口产量的数量一致的估计。在这样的时间尺度上，三种初级生产之间的这种一致似乎是意料之中的，但却导致了基本的“雷德菲尔德悖论”：平流或向上混合到光区的营养物质必须携带相关的氧债（AOU）和溶解的无机碳，足以在很大程度上抵消观测到的季节性光合作用的氧积累和碳减少。对可以提供的各种解释和情景的详尽考虑未能解释观测结果-这里称为“海洋初级生产悖论（OP3）”的困境。伍兹霍尔海洋研究所（Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution）的一组研究人员将在三到四年的时间里，同时准确地测量所有三个地球化学系统，重新检查OP3。具体来说，这三个系统分别是：光区产氧、光区耗氧和营养通量测定。光区氧气系统将受到一整套惰性气体（He-Xe）加上O2和N2的时间序列测量的限制，重点是O2和Ar的精确测量（至0.1%），后者作为氧气的生物模拟物。其他气体将用于更全面地约束和完善海气交换和上层海洋模式。除了解决海洋生物地球化学的基本问题外，这项工作预计将在海洋地球化学领域产生相当广泛的影响，为海洋学界提供新的采样技术（稀有气体采样器），可用于各种各样的生物地球化学问题。设计和专业知识将免费提供给那些提出要求的人。

ABSTRACTOCE-0221247Primary production and remineralization in oligotrophic ocean waters like those around Bermuda are phenomena of central importance in the ocean carbon-cycle and figure prominently in climate change impact modeling. Geochemical constraints on primary production at Bermuda, characterized by annual and longer time-scales and based on three fundamentally different systems, lead to quantitatively consistent estimates of new, net community and export production. This agreement between the three types of primary production would at first seem to be expected on such time-scales, but leads to the basic "Redfield Paradox ": nutrients advected or mixed upward into the euphotic zone must carry with them an associated oxygen debt (AOU) and dissolved inorganic carbon sufficient to negate largely the observed seasonal photosynthetic oxygen buildup and carbon drawdown. An exhaustive consideration of various explanations and scenarios that can be offered fail to explain the observations -- a dilemma here referred to as the "Ocean Primary Production Paradox (OP3)".A team of researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution will re-examine the OP3 by simultaneously and definitively measuring all three geochemical systems over a period of three to four years. These three systems are, specifically, euphotic zone oxygen production, aphotic zone oxygen consumption, and nutrient flux-gauge determinations. The euphotic zone oxygen system will be constrained by the time-series measurement of the full suite of noble gases (He-Xe) plus O2 and N2,with emphasis on precision measurements of O2 and Ar (to 0.1%),the latter as a biogenic analog of oxygen. The other gases will be used to more completely constrain and refine the air-sea gas exchange and upper ocean model. Aside from addressing fundamental problem in ocean biogeochemistry, this work is expected to have considerably broader impact in the field of ocean geochemistry by providing the oceanographic community with new sampling technology (the noble gas sampler) that can be used in a broad variety of biogeochemical problems. The design and expertise will be made freely available to those who request it.