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Cariaco Basin off Venezuela Associated Investigators: Related Web Sites: The CARIACO Ocean Time-Series project was established in the Cariaco Basin in November 1995 with support from the Venezuelan Fondo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnologia e Investigacion (FONACIT) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The Cariaco Basin is a semi-enclosed tectonic depression located on the continental shelf off northern Venezuela in the southern Caribbean Sea. It is composed of two ~1400m deep sub-basins that are connected to the Caribbean Sea by two ~140m deep channels. These channels allow for open exchange of near-surface water. The restricted circulation below the 140 m sill, coupled with highly productive surface waters due to seasonal wind-driven coastal upwelling (~450 gC m-2 yr-1 Muller-Karger et al., 2010), has led to sustained anoxia below ~250m. The goal of the project is to understand linkages between oceanographic processes and the production, remineralization and sinking flux of particulate matter in the Cariaco Basin, and how these change over time. It also aims at understanding climatic changes in the region, as well as in the Atlantic Ocean, and how variation in the processes are preserved in sediments accumulating in this anoxic basin. CARIACO conducts near-monthly cruises to the station (10 30 N; 64 40 W) to collect a core suite of biogeochemical and ecological samples. It also has microbiology component which carries out specific bi-annual cruises, and a sediment trap mooring which collects particle fluxes bi-weekly at 5 depths from ~150m to ~1200m. References: Muller-Karger, F. E., Varela, R., Thunell, R. C., Scranton, M. I., Taylor, G. T., Astor, Y., ... & Hu, C. (2010). The CARIACO oceanographic time series. Carbon and Nutrient Fluxes in Continental Margins: A Global Synthesis. JGOFS Continental. |