In this project the distribution of large and small particles will be measured in the U.S. Joint Global Ocean Flux Studies in the Central Equatorial Pacific (EQPAC) to address two of the five problems being addressed in EQPAC, namely: Problem I: What is the relationship between physical forcing and upper ocean biogeochemical cycles? Problem IV: Which processes are responsible for the transport and regeneration of particulate and dissolved nutrients? The work is designed to fill that gap in knowledge by making high resolution profiles of small particles using transmissometers and of aggregates using Large Aggregate Profiling Systems (LAPS). LAPS profiling is proposed during the two transect cruises and the two times-series in EQPAC to contribute to the solution of the above problems. LAPS also has a transmissometer and CTD to obtain simultaneous profiles of beam attenuation (proportional to small particle concentration), temperature and salinity to compare particle distributions with water structure.
