Project: Quantifying Upper Ocean Export and Remineralization of Bioactive and Particle Reactive Trace Elements along the US GEOTRACES Tahiti to Alaska Transect

NSF Award Abstract:
The goal of the international GEOTRACES program is to understand the distributions of trace chemical elements and their isotopes in the oceans. A core approach of GEOTRACES involves coordinated expeditions that measure multiple trace elements and isotopes (TEIs) across key gradients in the ocean, such as changes in productivity, redox/oxygen, boundary scavenging intensity, and hydrothermal activity. However, trace elemental distributions are not enough to meet the GEOTRACES goal to "identify processes and quantify fluxes that control the distribution of TEIs in the ocean and to establish the sensitivity of these changing distributions to environmental conditions." To measure rates of processes requires the use of other measurements, such as naturally occurring radioactive isotopes. This project involves the measurement of two isotopes of the element thorium on a U.S. GEOTRACES expedition in the Pacific Ocean, from Alaska to Tahiti. Thorium has a tendency to become associated with particles in the oceans, and therefore it can be used to measure the sinking of other elements out of the ocean surface. Thorium isotopes with short half-lives can be used to track processes that occur on faster timescales (weeks or seasons), such as those related to biology in the surface waters of the ocean, while isotopes with longer half-lives are useful for studying processes that occur on longer time scales like that of ocean circulation. This project would use measurements of thorium-234 and thorium-228, with half-lives of 24.1 days and 1.9 years, respectively, to estimate sinking rates of thorium and other elements in the upper ocean.

The proposal is broken down into four main activities: 1) Use short-lived Th-234 to estimate particle export and remineralization rates; 2) use ratios of Th-234 to major biogenic phases (e.g., carbon, nitrogen, biogenic silica) and trace elements (e.g. iron, manganese, etc.) to derive flux profiles of other major and trace elements; 3) extend the export and remineralization rates in time/depth using Th-228; 4) examine how changes in #1-3 are related to expected gradients in particle concentration and type, plankton community shifts, net community production, aerosol inputs/dust, physical forcing (e.g. upwelling), hydrothermal plumes, and other features along this GEOTRACES transect. Profiles of total Th-234:U-238 provide quantitative estimates of Th-234 flux vs. depth, which along with parallel size-fractionated particulate profiles of Th-234 and TEIs allow us to empirically calculate the vertical profile of net particle export for any TEI. With high resolution vertical and spatial sampling, the application of Th-234 can be extended below the zone of net removal in the surface ocean to include quantification of particle export and remineralization in the upper several hundred meters. Based upon prior studies, the Th-234 flux model will need to be adjusted for physical transport, especially upwelling across the equator. Selected Th-228 profiles can extend these flux and remineralization estimates even further with depth and over longer time scales. The project will support a Ph.D. student.