Collaborative Research: Drilling Site Survey - Life in Subseafloor Sediments of the South Pacific Gyre

这一为期两年的项目的重点是描述南太平洋环流的海底和次海底的特征，作为IODP关于钻探深层生物圈目标的提议的现场调查活动的一部分。该项目将收集沉积物岩心，并在南太平洋环流进行水深测量和地球物理调查，这是一种海洋现象，包括一系列地质背景(例如东太平洋隆起；南太平洋深海平面)，并与有机碳埋藏率低和沉积物缓慢积累有关。核心样品将被用来研究总活性非常低的原核生物群落，并确定水的辐解作用在多大程度上为这些低碳沉积物中的微生物过程提供电子供体。研究人员将在该项目的许多深层生物圈目标上与德国科学家密切合作。该项目直接服务于IODP在深层生物圈和海底以下海洋领域的优先事项，并有可能扩大研究界分析和解释深层生物圈样本的能力。该项目将通过对本科生和研究生的培训，促进科学人力资源的发展。研究结果也将被记录在罗德岛大学已建立的网站上，名为“地下生命”。

This 2-year project focuses on characterizing the seafloor and subseafloor in the South Pacific Gyre as part of site survey activities for an IODP proposal to drill for deep biosphere objectives. The project will collect sediment cores and conduct bathymetric and geophysical surveys in the South Pacific Gyre, an oceanographic phenomenon that includes a range of geologic settings (e.g., East Pacific Rise; South Pacific abyssal plane) and that is associated with low rates of organic carbon burial and slow sediment accumulation. Core samples will be used to study prokaryotic communities having very low total activity and to determine the extent to which water radiolysis plays a role in supplying electron donors for microbial processes in these carbon-poor sediments. The researchers will closely collaborate with German scientists on many of the project's deep biosphere objectives. The project directly serves IODP priorities in the area of the deep biosphere and subseafloor ocean and has the potential to expand the research community's capacity to analyze and interpret deep biosphere samples. The project will contribute to the development of human resources in science through the training of both undergraduate and graduate students. Results will also be documented on an established University of Rhode Island website on "Subsurface Life."