Assessing the Impact of Developing-World Land Use on Riverine Organic Carbon Delivery to the Ocean

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。河流输入在全球海洋的地球化学中发挥着重要作用。河流为沿海大陆架和公海提供了大量的营养物质、有机物和悬浮沉积物。向沿海地区输送高营养负荷可以增加初级生产，这将进一步增加输送到海洋沉积物的有机碳量。了解从河流输送到海洋的陆地物质的数量和化学性质，对于理解海洋沉积物中碳埋藏的当前和未来模式至关重要。人们认识到，位于热带和亚热带发展中区域的流域在河流养分释放方面发挥着越来越重要的作用，为了预测人类对沿海和全球海洋进程的影响，必须了解地球仪发展中区域的影响。莱斯大学的研究人员将研究一系列委内瑞拉河流，以描述发展中国家土地利用方式对河流营养物质、有机碳和海洋总悬浮固体输入的影响。将影响和土地使用指数与输出材料的化学性质联系起来，将澄清土地使用与流入海洋的河流材料的质量和组成之间的关系。这项研究的结果还将提供对全球海洋碳循环更好的全面了解。 这项研究是美国和委内瑞拉科学家合作进行的，将为两名博士生提供支持。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).River inputs play a significant role in the geochemistry of the global oceans. Rivers provide a significant source of nutrients, organic matter and suspended sediment to coastal shelves and the open ocean. The delivery of high nutrient loads to coastal areas can increase primary production, which will further increase the amount of organic carbon delivered to marine sediments. Understanding the amount, as well as the chemistry, of the terrestrial materials delivered from rivers to the ocean is essential to comprehend both the current and future patterns of carbon burial in ocean sediments. It is recognized that watersheds located in tropical and subtropical developing regions play an increasingly important role in river nutrient release, and to predict the human impact on coastal and global ocean processes, it is important to understand the impacts of the developing regions of the globe. Researchers from Rice University will study a suite of Venezuelan rivers to characterize the effects of developing-world land use practices on river nutrients, organic carbon, and total suspended solid inputs to the ocean. Correlating an impact and land use index with the chemistry of exported materials, will provide clarification on the relationship between land use and the mass and composition of the riverine material delivered to the ocean. The results from this research will also provide a better overall understanding of the global marine carbon cycle. This research is being done as a collaborative effort between United States and Venezuelan scientists and will provide support for two PhD students.