9503455 Eglinton The molecular-level characterization of particulate organic matter (POM) in the marine environment has remained technically unfeasible until recently. The investigator in this study will be taking advantage of recent developments in the field of direct temperature resolved mass spectrometry (DT-MS) to study compositional details of suspended POM collected from inshore will involve the use of flow cytometry to separate suspended POM into sub-classes defined on the particle size) followed by DT-MS analysis of the class separates. The approach will make possible the determination of the composition and relative importance of different classes of organic compounds (polysaccharides, proteins, phenols, etc.) as well as establish chemical signatures for the planktonic sources of the POM.
