Trace metal and isotope clean sampling system for oceanographic research

由于气候驱动的海冰覆盖和海洋表面环流的变化，加拿大的海洋正在发生迅速变化，这反过来又会严重影响生物生产力和我国渔业的健康、温室气体（如二氧化碳）的海气交换以及潜在有害污染物（如汞、铅）的分布。目前，我们预测未来轨迹和充分了解这些变化的影响的能力受到对形成我们三个海洋的功能特征和弹性的相互作用的化学、物理和生物过程的了解不足的限制。海洋中微量元素和同位素（TEIs）随时间和空间的分布和变化可以提供与正在发生的全球变化相关的关键生物、物理和化学过程的重要信息。例如，微量元素影响生物生产力，最终影响海洋吸收人为二氧化碳和减缓气候变化的能力。同样，初级生产的时空变化也决定着我们的渔业产量。tei也是当前海洋环流的有用地球化学示踪剂，并通过沉积物记录提供过去海洋状况的替代信息，而这些信息只能通过研究现代海洋的tei来理解。为了进行这种研究，必须在采样过程中不污染海水中痕量金属——这是一项艰巨的任务，需要专门的设备。这里所要求的设备将有助于维持和扩大加拿大为tei可靠、清洁地采集海洋样本的能力，并具有现代海洋学调查和过程研究所需的高空间和时间分辨率。这种能力对于加拿大对全球和区域研究作出贡献至关重要，这些研究将为海洋学、渔业和气候变化研究提供宝贵的信息。

Canada's oceans are undergoing rapid change as a result of climate-driven alterations in sea ice cover and surface ocean circulation, which in turn can strongly influence biological productivity and the health of our fisheries, air-sea exchange of greenhouse gases (e.g. carbon dioxide) and the distribution of potentially harmful contaminants (e.g. mercury, lead). At present, our ability to predict the future trajectory and fully understand the impacts of these changes is limited by a poor understanding of the interacting chemical, physical and biological processes which shape the functional characteristics and resiliency of our three oceans. The distribution and variation of trace elements and isotopes (TEIs) with time and space in the ocean can provide important information on key biological, physical and chemical processes relative to ongoing global change. For example, trace elements influence biological productivity which ultimately impacts the ability of the oceans to absorb anthropogenic carbon dioxide and mitigate climate change. Similarly, spatial and temporal variability in primary production determines our fisheries yields. TEIs are also useful geochemical tracers of present ocean circulation and provide, through sediment records, proxy information about past ocean conditions, which can only be understood by studying TEIs in the modern ocean. To do this kind of research, seawater must be collected without contaminating it for trace metals during sampling - this is a difficult task that requires specialized equipment. The equipment requested here will help to maintain and expand Canadian capacity to reliably, cleanly sample the ocean for TEIs with the high spatial and temporal resolution required for modern oceanographic survey and process studies. This capacity is essential to allow Canadian contributions to global and regional studies that will provide invaluable information for oceanographic, fisheries and climate change research.