| Summary: | A major program undertaken by the Pollution Ecology Group during the year was VERTEX (Vertical Transport and Exchange), a multi-institutional project that is examining vertical transport processes in the ocean. Our laboratory is estimating the vertical fluxes in the water column of several synthetic organics and of a group of biogenic hydrocarbons. It was our original intent to include also petroleum-derived hydrocarbons, but levels appeared to be below detection limits. The initial cruise was undertaken on R/V WECOMA off Central California coast in August-September 1980. In preparation for Year II of the program, the group is assembling new extraction equipment which will greatly increase the extractable volumes of seawater, permitting measurements to be made of a greater variety of compounds at lower concentrations. Development of the seawater sampling capability for VERTEX and related programs has been accomplished through the use of the Research Vessel INVINCIBLE of the Bodega Bay Institute, which has provided a sampling platform for the development and use of the extraction equipment. The measurements of trace levels of organic pollutants in seawater, under conditions that minimize sample contamination, are being used to construct mass balance equations for these pollutants in coastal marine waters. Such equations are permitting assessment of the assimilative capacity of the oceans to absorb this materials. The VERTEX program is funded by the International Decade of Ocean Exploration Program, National Science Foundation. The group began a three-year study of the distribution of hydrocarbons in marine food chains dependent upon krill in the Antarctic, with three persons participating in a cruise of R/V HERO in the Antarctic Peninsula area in February 1981. In this program measurements are being made of the levels of hydrocarbons in seawater and at various levels of the food chain. Particular attention is being paid to the food chains dependent upon krill, since expected commercial exploitation of this abundant species might alter ecological balances within Antarctic food webs.
|
|---|