9310634 GOWING As part of the U.S. JGOF Arabian Sea Process Study (ASPS), this study is aimed at understanding how changes in species composition and abundance in the pelagic community of primary producers, zooplankton grazers, and microheterotrophic decomposers impacts the biochemical cycling of carbon in the Arabian Sea. Physical forcing by the monsoon winds triggers seasonal burst of biological productivity in this region. As in other ecosystems, this production will involve a temporal succession of species of producers, grazers, and decomposers-- each with differing capacities to influence carbon production, respiration, physical repackaging (e.g., shredding, fecal pellet production), and transport-- and the PIs propose to follow these changes over time. Therefore, while other investigators involved in the ASPS, will be making relatively gross chemical measurements of the rates of carbon production, mineralization, and transport, this study will provide valuable insights into the actual contributions of specific biophysical and ecological mechanisms accounting for those rates.
