Biochemical investigation of multicorer sediment profile PS99/051-9

To detect and track the impact of large-scale environmental changes in a the transition zone between the northern North Atlantic and the central Arctic Ocean, and to determine experimentally the factors controlling deep-sea biodiversity, the Alfred- Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) established the deep-sea long-term observatory HAUSGARTEN, which constitutes the first, and until now only open-ocean long-term station in a polar region. Virtually undisturbed sediment samples have been taken using a video-guided multiple corer (MUC) at 13 HAUSGARTEN stations along a bathymetric (1,000 - 4,000 m water depth) and a latitudinal transect in 2,500 m water depth as well as two stations at 230 and 1,200 m water depth within the framework of the KONGHAU project. Various biogenic sediment compounds were analyzed to estimate the input of organic matter from phytodetritus sedimentation, benthic activities (e.g. bacterial exoenzymatic activity), and the total biomass of the smallest sediment-inhabiting organisms (size range: bacteria to meiofauna).

为探测并追踪北大西洋北部与北冰洋中部过渡带的大规模环境变化影响，并通过实验明确控制深海生物多样性的关键因子，阿尔弗雷德·魏格纳极地与海洋研究所（Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research, AWI）建立了深海长期观测站HAUSGARTEN——该站点是极地地区首个且迄今唯一的开放式远洋长期观测站。在KONGHAU项目框架下，研究团队沿水深地形梯度（水深1000~4000米）以及水深2500米处的纬度断面，在13个HAUSGARTEN站位采用视频导向多管取样器（video-guided multiple corer, MUC）采集近乎未受扰动的沉积物样品，另在水深230米与1200米处设置2个站位开展采样。研究人员对多种生源沉积物组分进行分析，以估算浮游植物碎屑沉降输入的有机质通量、底栖生物活动（如细菌胞外酶活性），以及栖息于沉积物中的最小体型生物（尺寸范围：细菌至小型底栖生物（meiofauna））的总生物量。