Publication Date:
2019-03-27
Description:
The magnitude and controls of particulate carbon exported from surface waters and its remineralization at depth are poorly constrained. The Carbon Flux Explorer (CFE), a Lagrangian float-deployed imaging sediment trap, has been designed to optically measure the hourly variations of particle flux to kilometer depths for months to seasons while relaying data in near-real time to shore via satellite without attending ships. The main optical proxy for particle load recorded by the CFE, volume attenuance (VA; units of mATN cm2), while rigorously defined and highly precise, has not been robustly calibrated in terms of particulate organic carbon (POC), nitrogen (PN) and phosphorus (PP). In this study, a novel 3-D-printed particle sampler using cutting edge additive manufacturing was developed and integrated with the CFE. Two such modified floats (CFE-Cals) were deployed a total of 15 times for 18–24 h periods to gain calibration imagery and samples at depths near 150 m in four contrasting productivity environments during the June 2017 California Current Ecosystem Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) process study. Regression slopes for VA : POC and VA : PN (units mATN cm2: mmol; R2, n, p value in parentheses) were 1.01×104 (0.86, 12,
Print ISSN:
1726-4170
Electronic ISSN:
1726-4189
Topics:
Biology
,
Geosciences
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