Biochemical investigation of multicorer sediment profile PS80/172-3

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，同时通过实验明确调控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，缩写AWI）建立了深海长期观测站HAUSGARTEN。该观测站是极地地区首个、也是迄今为止唯一的远洋长期观测站点。在KONGHAU项目框架下，研究团队采用视频引导式多管取样器（video-guided multiple corer，缩写MUC），在13个HAUSGARTEN观测站位采集了近乎未受扰动的沉积物样本：这些站位覆盖了1000~4000米水深的地形梯度断面，以及2500米水深的纬度断面，同时还在水深230米与1200米处设置了2个采样站位。研究人员对多种生源性沉积物组分开展分析，以估算浮游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：从细菌到小型底栖生物（meiofauna））的总生物量。