One important goal of the Global Ocean Flux Study in the equatorial Pacific is to characterize material fluxes from the surface ocean to the deep sea. Marine sediments, and the fossil shells they contain, can play a vital role in the ultimate achievement of this goal. In this proposal the P.I.'s wish to conduct a four-phase study of microfossils collected 1) in stratified plankton tows, 2) in sediment traps, 3) preserved in near-surface sediments of the equatorial Pacific and 4) sediments which span the last full glacial-interglacial cycle. The P.I.'s propose a quantitative census of radiolaria and foraminifera, the two dominant zooplankton fossil groups, and detailed stable isotopic analysis of foraminifera found in plankton tow, sediment trap, and near surface sediment samples of the Equatorial Stations. This experiment will improve our understanding of the processes that contribute to the formation of marine sediments. With this understanding, we will be better able to reconstruct these processes from the preserved sediment record, to assess past variations in biogenic fluxes.
