With support through the NSF Small Grants for Exploratory Research Program, researchers from the University of Miami and the University of California at Santa Barbara will study the regional and depth distribution of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in the Atlantic Ocean. To collect seawater samples from the surface to the deep ocean along a north-south cruise transect of the Atlantic Ocean for chemical analysis, they will take advantage of an invitation to participate in U.S. Repeat Hydrographic Survey of the Atlantic basin in 2005. Because such data are sparse for this region of the world ocean, the investigators anticipate that the new information gathered will significantly improve our understanding of the oceanic distribution of DOC/DON and, as a broader impact, of the role played by these substances in global carbon cycling and climatic change.
