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Subject: "Sinking Particle Fluxes in the Twilight Zone" Special Session at Hawaii Ocean Sciences Mtg.

We are pleased to announce a special session for those interested in "Sinking Particle Fluxes in the Twilight Zone" (OS049) at the 2006 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, 20-24 February. Abstracts are due online on October 20th. Details about the session and submittal information can be found at http://www.agu.org/meetings/os06/ .
OS049: Sinking Particle Fluxes in the Twilight Zone

Conveners:
Ken Buesseler
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Mail Stop #25
WHOI Woods Hole, MA, USA 02543
508-289-2309
kbuesseler@whoi.edu

Cindy Lee
Stony Brook University
Marine Sciences Research Center
Stony Brook, NY, USA 11794-5000
631-632-8741
cindy.lee@sunysb.edu

Hiroaki Saito
Tohoku National Fisheries Research Institute
3-27-5 Shinhama-cho
Shiogama, JPN 985-0001
+81-22-365-9929
hsaito@affrc.go.jp

The transport of carbon from the surface ocean to the deep sea is one of the critical processes in the global carbon cycle. Characteristic features of this transport pathway are disaggregation and decomposition of particles as they sink, resulting in the net transfer of particulate organic matter into dissolved inorganic and organic forms and other non-sinking phases. Thus, there are both transformations in the character of suspended and sinking matter and an overall decrease in the particle flux with depth in the oceans. These sinking particles represent a key component of the ocean food web with clear implications for understanding the dynamics of the ecosystem and human effects on it. This decrease in particle flux is greatest between the surface ocean and depths of 1000-2000m, within the “twilight zone”, where more than 75% of all particle remineralization is thought to occur. This session seeks to bring together new studies on particle flux in the ocean's twilight zone and the controls thereof. Studies of the marine particle cycle using biological, geochemical, physical, and modeling and statistical methods are encouraged, in particular those using multiple approaches. Studies of the twilight zone are a key domain of IMBER. Results from new biogeochemical studies on the marine particle cycle, such as VERTIGO and DEEP in the Pacific, and MedFlux in the Mediterranean, will be highlighted, as well as other studies that address transport and cycling of marine particulate matter.

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