Journal
DEEP-SEA RESEARCH PART I-OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH PAPERS
Volume 47, Issue 2, Pages 277-294Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/S0967-0637(99)00056-4
Keywords
sediment trap; thorium-234; Bermuda
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The flux and composition of material caught using two different upper ocean sediment trap designs was compared at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study site (BATS). The standard surface-tethered trap array at BATS was compared to a newly designed neutrally buoyant sediment trap (NBST). Both traps used identical cylindrical collection tubes. Of particular concern was the effect of horizontal flow on trap collection efficiency. In one experiment, mass, particulate organic carbon (POC) and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) fluxes were slightly lower (20-30%) in the NEST than in the standard BATS trap. In contrast, Th-234 and fecal pellet fluxes were up to a factor of two to three lower in the NEST. In a second experiment, mass and POC fluxes decreased significantly with depth in the BATS surface-tethered trap, but not in the NEST. Different brine treatments had no measurable effect on collection efficiencies. A striking observation was that the swimmer flux was much larger in the standard BATS traps than in the NEST. Overall, these results show that different components of the sinking flux can be collected with differing efficiencies, depending upon how traps are deployed in the ambient environment. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available