GCR: Collaborative Research: The Convergent Impact of Marine Viruses, Minerals, and Microscale Physics on Phytoplankton Carbon Sequestration

一个由生物、化学、物理、工程、数学和计算模型专家组成的汇聚小组研究了浮游植物-病原体-颗粒-捕食者动态和耦合联系如何结合在一起，以解释观察到的颗粒有机碳(POC)向深海输出效率的高空间变异性。他们阐明并量化了病毒和压载矿物之间的联系，以增加对海洋生物碳泵中的碳循环以及病毒在其中的影响的了解。通过提供可用于改进地球系统模型中碳输出的参数的知识，该项目将有助于减少区域海洋生物地球化学预测的不确定性，有可能改善从季节到数十年的时间尺度上的海洋生态系统和渔业管理。该项目包括在“科学工具”项目中为教育工作者提供教学资源和实践培训的活动，该项目提供了一种简单而简洁的方式，以一种对教师有用的方式向学生传达科学研究的过程。该项目将基于实验室的模型宿主-病毒-食草机系统的实验与对硅藻和球藻自然种群的广泛现场观测和操纵研究结合在一起，这两个浮游植物群占了估计的深海颗粒有机物质通量的大部分。实验和测量将对感染的诊断、生物和化学控制以及粒子凝聚理论与微尺度物理和放牧相结合，以量化在与场相关的湍流条件下与每一种假想的出口机制的联系。使用尖端工程和分析工具来诊断和跟踪感染动态，同时表征和量化颗粒聚集和解聚、矿物溶解、下沉动力学、放牧率和粪便颗粒产量，在前所未有的分辨率和明确定义的微尺度物理制度下。实地活动阐明了假设机制在刺激自然开花期间POC出口方面的相对效率，同时提供了POC流量的批量和大小分辨估计。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A convergent team of experts in biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, mathematics, and computational modeling examine how dynamic and coupled phytoplankton-pathogen-particle-predator linkages coalesce to explain the observed high spatial variability in the efficiency of the export of particulate organic carbon (POC) to the deep ocean. They elucidate and quantify the linkages between viruses and ballast minerals to increase understanding of carbon cycling in the oceanic biological carbon pump and the impact of viruses within it. By providing knowledge than can be used to improve the parameterization of carbon export in Earth system models, the project will help reduce uncertainty in regional marine biogeochemical projections, potentially improving marine ecosystem and fisheries management on timescales from seasons to decades. The project includes activities that provide teaching resources and hands-on training to educators within a ‘Tools of Science’ program that provides a simple and succinct way to communicate the process of scientific research to students in a way that is useful to teachers. The project couples laboratory-based experiments on model host-virus-grazer systems with extensive field based observational and manipulative studies on natural populations of diatoms and coccolithophores, the two phytoplankton groups that account for most of the estimated particulate organic matter flux to the deep ocean. Experiments and measurements integrate diagnostic biological and chemical controls on infection and particle coagulation theory with microscale physics and grazing to quantify links to each hypothesized export mechanism under field-relevant turbulent conditions. Cutting-edge engineering and analytical tools are used to diagnose and track infection dynamics while characterizing and quantifying particle aggregation and disaggregation, mineral dissolution, sinking dynamics, grazing rates, and fecal pellet production at unprecedented resolution and under well-defined, microscale physical regimes. Field campaigns elucidate the relative efficiency of hypothesized mechanisms in stimulating POC export in natural blooms, while providing bulk and size-resolved estimates of POC flux.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.