Dataset: Total water column Thorium-234 measurements collected during the 2012-2013 Palmer Field Season (WAP Carbon export project)

ValidatedFinal no updates expectedDOI: 10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.881459.1Version 1 (2022-08-02)Dataset Type:Cruise Results

Principal Investigator: Michael R. Stukel (Florida State University EOAS)

BCO-DMO Data Manager: Sawyer Newman (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)


Project: Quantifying Processes Driving Interannual Variability in the Biological Carbon Pump in the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP Carbon export)


Abstract

Total water-column Th-234 measurements collected during the 2012-2013 field season of the Palmer LTER program near Anvers Island in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. 238U-234Th disequilibrium is used as a proxy for sinking particle flux out of the upper ocean. Vertical profiles of 234Th were measured using standard small-volume techniques approximately weekly. Measurements typically spanned from the surface to a depth of 100 m.

Salinity and density were measured using a CTD.  4-L Samples for total water-column 234Th activity were collected using Go-Flo bottles at 7 depths from the surface to 100 m.  Sample volume was determined gravimetrically and then samples were acidified to a pH < 2 with nitric acid and a Th-230 tracer spike was added.  Samples were shaken and allowed to equilibrate for 4 – 9 hours.  Samples were then re-basified with ammonium hydroxide to a pH of 8 – 9, shaken, and allowed to equilibrate for >8 hours.  Samples were then vacuum filtered at high vacuum pressure through a quartz (QMA) filter.  Filters were mounted in RISO planchets and counted on a RISO low-level beta multi-counter at Palmer Station.  Following a background count >6 months later, samples were dissolved in 8M nitric acid / 10% hydrogen peroxide solution and a Th-229 tracer spike was added.  Samples were then shipped to the Woods Hole Analytical laboratory for analysis of the Th-229:Th-230 ratio, which was used to calculate the initial precipitation and filtration yield of Th-234. For additional details, see Stukel et al. (2015) and Stukel et al. (2022). 


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Methods

Stukel, M. R., Asher, E., Couto, N., Schofield, O., Strebel, S., Tortell, P., & Ducklow, H. W. (2015). The imbalance of new and export production in the western Antarctic Peninsula, a potentially “leaky” ecosystem. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 29(9), 1400–1420. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015gb005211
Methods

Stukel, M. R., Schofield, O. M. E., & Ducklow, H. W. (2022). Seasonal variability in carbon:234thorium ratios of suspended and sinking particles in coastal Antarctic waters: Field data and modeling synthesis. Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 184, 103764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2022.103764