Dissolved Organic Matter in Marine Environments: A Study of the Origin, Lability and Molecular Composition ...

• Main Author: Jaggi, Aprami
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Graduate Studies 2018
• Subjects: Dissolved Organic Matter; Marine Ecosystems; Biogeochemistry; Geochemistry; FOS Earth and related environmental sciences; Arctic; Arctic Ocean
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/prism/31770; https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/106479

As one of the Earth’s largest active carbon pools, accounting for around 90% of the organic carbon in the oceans, dissolved organic matter (DOM) plays a fundamental role in carbon storage and other biogeochemical processes. It exists as a highly functionalized and complex mixture of organic compounds which are diverse in their source, reactivity, and history, with about 95% of aquatic DOM mixture remaining un-identified on a molecular level. This thesis uses ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry to characterize the origin, composition, and lability of DOM in the aquatic system. In this thesis, water and sediment samples were collected from sampling sites in the Arctic Ocean, as well as the northern and southern slope of the Gulf of Mexico, to discern the compositional differences in DOM that occur geographically. The DOM of waters sampled across the different ecosystems show a homogenized composition with little variability in their compound class distribution, consisting primarily of NOx, N2Ox, N3Ox, and ...