Formation, transportation and transformation processes of organic matter from the surface ocean to the deep sea

Abstract

The ocean plays an important role as carbon sink, especially under the rapid anthropogenic climate change. The biological carbon pump is one of the main mechanisms, which export organic carbon from the surface ocean to the deep sea, where it can be stored for hundreds of years. Polar regions are subjected to rising temperatures and increasing ice melt, resulting in a large input of melt water (freshwater) in the surface ocean which impacts physical, biological, and chemical processes involved in the carbon export. This dissertation investigates how processes involved in formation, transportation, and transformation of exported particulate organic matter are impacted in polar regions and identifies the dominating carbon export mechanisms: (1) in the Arctic fjord Scoresby Sund in East Greenland, (2) in open waters of the Southern Ocean, near to the island South Georgia, and (3) in a polar front system at the marginal ice zone in the Fram Strait in the Arctic Ocean.