NSF Org:	OCE Division Of Ocean Sciences
Recipient:	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Initial Amendment Date:	April 7, 1998
Latest Amendment Date:	April 11, 2000
Award Number:	9729697
Award Instrument:	Continuing Grant
Program Manager:	Donald L. Rice OCE  Division Of Ocean Sciences GEO  Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date:	May 1, 1998
End Date:	December 31, 2001 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$116,211.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$345,537.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 1998 = $114,623.00 FY 1999 = $114,703.00 FY 2000 = $116,211.00
History of Investigator:	Robert Thunell (Principal Investigator) thunell@geol.sc.edu Miguel Goni (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	University of South Carolina at Columbia 1600 HAMPTON ST COLUMBIA SC  US  29208-3403 (803)777-7093
Sponsor Congressional District:	06
Primary Place of Performance:	University of South Carolina at Columbia 1600 HAMPTON ST COLUMBIA SC  US  29208-3403
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	06
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	J22LNTMEDP73
Parent UEI:	Q93ZDA59ZAR5
NSF Program(s):	Chemical Oceanography
Primary Program Source:	app-0100  app-0198  app-0199
Program Reference Code(s):	9198, EGCH
Program Element Code(s):	167000
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.050

ABSTRACT

In this project, researchers from the University of South Florida will join with colleagues at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the University of South Carolina to study the relationship between near surface biogeochemical processes affecting the fluxed of carbon and nitrogen and the downward flux of particulates in the Cariaco Basin, an anoxic embayment on the coast of Venezuela. The Basin is famous for its relatively undisturbed varved sediments which many sedimentologists, geochemists, and paleoceanographers regard as a potentially valuable proxy archive for past oceanographic conditions of the CaribbeanSea and Atlantic Ocean. the USF group will concentrate on collection, modeling, and interpretation of hydrographic and core geochemical data (carbon, nitrogen, phytoplankton composition) of the water column and relating observations to events in the greater Caribbean basin. The SUNY investigators will study the chemical transformations of organic matter as it sinks from surface waters to depth in the Basin. And the South Carolina group will study particle sedimentation through the use of sediment traps and analysis of seabed sediment cores. It is anticipated that these studies will help establish a linkage between the Cariaco sediment archive and regional oceanographic processes over time, hopefully allowing researchers to predict future paleoclimatic/paleoceanographic events by referring to the record left in Cariaco sediments.

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