Particle transport processes at slope environments — event driven flux across the Barents Sea continental margin
✍ Scribed by Claudia Thomsen; F Blaume; H Fohrmann; I Peeken; U Zeller
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2001
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 408 KB
- Volume
- 175
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0025-3227
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✦ Synopsis
Recent studies of the vertical ¯ux of organic matter into the deep ocean have prompted the search for key organic compounds (biomarkers) as tracers for its production, ¯ux and burial into the sediment.
Particulate matter was collected with sediment traps moored at the Barents Sea continental margin (75811.78 0 N/12829.21 0 E; water depth 2050 m) at 610, 1840 and 1950 m depth. The compositions of the organic material in the two bottoms near traps differ signi®cantly. This difference cannot be the result of a change of the vertical sedimentation alone. A combination of biomarker analyses, quantitative microscopy and bulk parameter determinations on water and sediment trap samples is used in this study to demonstrate that a turbidity plume event at the shelf edge is a vehicle to transport organic and lithogenic particles at high velocities to the benthos of the lower continental margin. It is suggested that ®ne particles were advected into the trap at 1850 m, whereas the coarser fraction of higher settling velocities, passing several resuspension loops entered the lower trap.