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Journey of low-density particles to the DEEP ocean floor – terrestrial organic carbon and microplastics FLUX through submarine canyons.

Obiettivo

Submarine canyons connect continents directly to the deep ocean. They are conduits for land-derived sediment, including low-density particles like particulate organic carbon (POC) and microplastics. The sediment buries these materials in seafloor deposits, effectively sequestering them from the atmosphere-land-ocean cycle. The POC burial is speculated to be enough to impact the global carbon budget. And the pollutants raise concerns about ecotoxicity in vulnerable seafloor ecosystems. Recent reviews unanimously define quantification of these particle fluxes as an urgent next step in research. However, my recent work demonstrates that progress in quantifying these fluxes is obstructed by our limited understanding of physical mechanisms of transport and burial of low-density particles. Existing knowledge dictates that these should not be deposited together with much denser mineral sand. Yet this is where we consistently find POC and microplastics.
DEEP-FLUX aims to establish a new physical framework for quantifying fluxes of POC and microplastics from land to the ocean floor. I built the Turbi-Flume set-up to facilitate novel, scaled-down laboratory experiments that will reveal the physical mechanisms of transport and burial of microplastics and POC in currents down submarine canyons (Objective 1). These mechanisms will be built into my existing computer model for sediment flux through submarine canyons (Objective 2). Monitoring data from submarine canyons obtained in my European network of collaborators will validate this new model (Objective 3). DEEP-FLUX will allow the international submarine canyon research community to supplement observational sea-going research with quantifications of carbon burial and microplastics pollution in deep-sea hotspots. Such work will ultimately allow this missing carbon sequestration pathway to be included in global carbon budget studies, and form a scientific basis for policies to protect and manage deep-sea environments.

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Istituzione ospitante

UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
Contributo netto dell'UE
€ 2 465 000,00
Costo totale
Nessun dato

Beneficiari (1)