Project: Collaborative Research: Isotopic Indicators for Mechanisms of Organic Matter Degradation in the Northeast Pacific (EXPORTS)

NSF Award Abstract:
The biological pump is largely responsible for the vertical transport of organic carbon from the surface to the ocean interior. However, only a small fraction of organic material produced in surface waters is sequestered in the deep ocean. The rest is consumed, or respired, by bacteria and larger organisms. The overarching goal of the proposed work is to characterize the relative influences of bacteria versus larger organisms on the degradation of organic material with depth. Guided by recent results from the subtropical Pacific, the investigators will use measurements of stable isotopes of nitrogen in different amino acids (compound-specific isotopic analysis of amino acids, known as AA-CSIA), along with measurements of the abundances of different forms of amino acids, and other parameters derived from these analyses to identify how the partitioning and flux of large and small particles are affected by different degradation processes. By improving the interpretive power of the AA-CSIA technique the investigators propose to determine: 1) the relative importance of microbial and zooplankton consumption on the efficiency of the biological carbon pump in the subarctic northeast Pacific, and 2) how much microbially-altered small particles fuel the metabolisms of mid-water zooplankton. This work capitalizes on an existing, comprehensive field program (NASA EXPORTS) specifically focused on building a predictive framework relating surface ocean properties to the vertical flux of organic carbon. The tremendous amount of data to be collected on all aspects of the biological pump as part of the EXPORTS program will aid the development and interpretation of the investigators' amino acid isotopic tool. Results will be broadly communicated via production and distribution of several episodes of Voice of the Sea, a local television program that will air in Hawaii and across many Pacific islands. Episodes also will be posted online and publicized through social media to the south Florida community. This project will support a Ph.D. student and an undergraduate student at University of Miami, which serves a 25% Hispanic population, and an M.S. student and an undergraduate student at University of Hawaii, which is a designated minority-serving institution.

The proposed work introduces a new geochemical framework to distinguish microbial versus zooplankton alteration of marine organic matter. Piloted on samples from the subtropical Pacific, this approach interrogates unamended sinking material directly, using amino acid compound-specific isotopic analysis (AA-CSIA) to determine the progressive, cumulative impact of microbial and zooplankton degradative pathways. The proposed work (1) will extend this interpretive framework to explicitly define end-member signatures such as fecal pellets and will apply this refined method to a study site in the subarctic northeast Pacific to (2) determine the vertical progression of degradative mechanisms in an oceanographic location with contrasting productivity and vertical length scales of flux attenuation and (3) determine whether microbially- degraded biomass is important for fueling midwater metazoans under contrasting carbon flux conditions. The proposed work will be conducted in collaboration with the NASA EXPORTS program at the Ocean Station Papa time-series site. Teaming with this program presents a unique opportunity to refine AA-CSIA interpretation in parallel with intensive data collection defining productivity, particle size distribution and flux, and numerous biological parameters. In comparing subtropical and subarctic Pacific locations, the proposed work will test how differences in productivity and plankton community structure influence vertical patterns of consumption and alteration of phytodetritus by microbes and zooplankton, from surface to mesopelagic depths.

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.