Temporal trends and biogeochemical controls on methane and nitrous-oxide distributions in coastal waters of the subarctic Pacific Ocean ...

• Main Author: Capelle, David
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2016
• Subjects: Subarctic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0308660; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0308660

This PhD thesis examines the marine cycling of the greenhouse gases methane (CH₄) and nitrous-oxide (N₂O) in coastal British Columbia waters. The primary objectives of the work were to increase spatial and temporal data availability in an under-sampled coastal region, and to examine the processes responsible for CH₄ and N₂O distributions, and their sensitivity to changing environmental conditions (e.g. O₂-availability). Using a novel high-throughput analytical system, based on purge and trap gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), we measured a 6 year time-series of monthly water column CH₄ and N₂O profiles from Saanich Inlet, British Columbia, as well as three years of water column profiles and surface measurements along the West coast of Vancouver Island (WCVI). The physical and biological processes responsible for the observed CH₄ and N₂O distributions were investigated using relationships with ancillary physical data and biological data, including recently available meta-genomic information. The ...