HR: 11:56h
AN: OS42A-05    [Abstracts]
TI: The "rain of particles" into the deep sea: perspectives of a biological detective who sifts through oceanic sediment traps
AU: * Silver, M W
EM: msilver@ucsc.edu
AF: Ocean Science Dept, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, United States
AB: The sedimentation of particles from the ocean's sunlit zone to underlying waters is not only key to sustenance of life at depth but also to the sequestration of carbon and surface-derived materials in underlying waters and sediments. Decades of research on particle flux have provided considerable quantitative information about the chemical constituents of sinking materials and their vertical and horizontal variability in the oceans. The biological processes initiating the rain have also received considerable attention, and models demonstrate the importance of particular characteristics of the photosynthetic organisms that initiate the process, as well as the features of the food webs that may control delivery rates. In this presentation, I revisit discoveries dating from sediment trap studies of the early ‘80s to those of the recent VERTEX project to decipher what the contents of sediment traps, particularly the various photosynthetic and other unicellular organisms, can tell us about biological processes affecting the rain of particles into the deep ocean.
DE: 4806 Carbon cycling (0428)
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly