Biological and Physical Drivers of Oxygen Saturation and Net Community Production Variability along the Western Antarctic Peninsula

该项目旨在详细测量南极半岛沿着海洋表面的含氧量。 净氧含量变化的详细地图将与地表水化学和浮游植物分布的测量相结合。 该项目将确定沿着半岛的近岸或近海浮游植物大量繁殖可能导致不同数量的碳被输出到深海的程度。 项目小组成员将参与生命和科学博物馆新学习工具的开发。他们还将直接从该补助金支持的活跃科学中向中学生教授水生生物地球化学和气候。该项目将分析氧气与氩气的关系，从而确定海洋表面氧气动力学的物理和生物贡献。 这些评估将与营养物质（铁和常量营养素）和辐照度的空间和时间分布相结合。 这将使研究人员能够解开冰动力学，铁和物理混合动力学之间的复杂相互作用，因为它们与该地区的净群落生产（NCP）有关。 NCP测量值将被归一化为颗粒有机碳（POC），并用于帮助确定“高生物量和低NCP”的区域和“低生物量和高NCP”的区域，作为浮游微生物群落组成的函数。 该团队将使用机器学习方法-包括决策树组合和遗传编程-来识别对促进生物碳通量至关重要的浮游生物群体。分解沿着西南极半岛的氧气信号也将有助于阐明氧气饱和度的生物和非生物驱动因素，以进一步了解全球海洋中不断增长的氧气测量（例如Argo浮标）。

This project seeks to make detailed measurements of the oxygen content of the surface ocean along the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Detailed maps of changes in net oxygen content will be combined with measurements of the surface water chemistry and phytoplankton distributions. The project will determine the extent to which on-shore or offshore phytoplankton blooms along the peninsula are likely to lead to different amounts of carbon being exported to the deeper ocean. The project team members will participate in the development of new learning tools at the Museum of Life and Science. They will also teach secondary school students about aquatic biogeochemistry and climate, drawing directly from the active science supported by this grant.The project will analyze oxygen in relation to argon that will allow determination of the physical and biological contributions to surface ocean oxygen dynamics. These assessments will be combined with spatial and temporal distributions of nutrients (iron and macronutrients) and irradiances. This will allow the investigators to unravel the complex interplay between ice dynamics, iron and physical mixing dynamics as they relate to Net Community Production (NCP) in the region. NCP measurements will be normalized to Particulate Organic Carbon (POC) and be used to help identify area of "High Biomass and Low NCP" and those with "Low Biomass and High NCP" as a function of microbial plankton community composition. The team will use machine learning methods- including decision tree assemblages and genetic programming- to identify plankton groups key to facilitating biological carbon fluxes. Decomposing the oxygen signal along the West Antarctic Peninsula will also help elucidate biotic and abiotic drivers of the O2 saturation to further contextualize the growing inventory of oxygen measurements (e.g. by Argo floats) throughout the global oceans.