Further study of the process of organic matter adsorption by marine sediments will focus two areas: the effect of the composition of peptides on their adsorption and decomposition, and the further investigation of the "irreversible" adsorption of amino acids observed in earlier work. The approach is to observe the adsorption of radiolabeled peptides of varying composition and chain length, synthesized for this study. Longer-term studies of the adsorption of radiolabeled amino acids by sediments and extracted sediment organic matter will also be done. A broad objective is better understanding of the processes leading to the preservation of organic matter in marine sediments, which remains a poorly-understood phenomenon.
