| Summary: | Progress Code: completed Statement: Values provided in temporal and spatial coverage are approximate only. These data should also be used with caution - the carbon dating suggests that there may have been some sort of movement in the peat - slumping and overlaying perhaps, or some error in the sampling - unfortunately the scientist responsible for the carbon dating has passed away, so while we can be confident in the actual data, using the cores to reconstruct what has happened over time would be dangerous. Metadata record for data from AAS (ASAC) project 3132. Public This research will determine variability in the influx and mineralogy of cosmic dust to the Southern Ocean during the Holocene from peat bog cores. Cosmic dust contains significant quantities of soluble iron, a micronutrient required for photosynthesis. Therefore, variations in the deposition of cosmic dust could significantly affect primary production in the Southern Ocean. This may also play an important role in global climate due to its influence on carbon dioxide draw-down from, and emission of volatile sulphur compounds to, the atmosphere. The download file contain a csv spreadsheet of carbon dating from geochemical peat cores collected from Green Gorge on Macquarie Island. Project objectives: This project will sample peat bogs on Macquarie Island to: 1. Quantify and develop a high-temporal resolution record of the variability in cosmic dust deposition during the Holocene; 2. Determine the mineralogy and quantify the solubility of iron contained in the cosmic dust; Iron is a micronutrient required for photosynthetic reactions within chloroplasts. Martin [1990] proposed that many oceanic phytoplankton, especially those in the high nutrient - low chlorophyll (HNLC) regions of the world's oceans (such as the Southern Ocean) were limited by the availability of iron. Martin et al. [1991] demonstrated that nanomolar increases in dissolved iron stimulated phytoplankton blooms in the North and Equatorial Pacific and Southern Oceans. Several ...
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