Uso del par radioactivo 210Po-210Pb en la zona subtropical de Benguela como trazador de velocidades de hundimiento de partículas y flujos de carbono en el océano

Abstract

In this Master’s Thesis, we will briefly describe the role of the ocean in sequestering at mospheric carbon, we will apply a model to estimate carbon fluxes and average sinking rates from concentrations of activities in the water column and in particles. And an algorithm will be developed in MATLAB to apply the model using 238U-234Th and 210Pb-210Po disequilibrium profiles. Furthermore, we will present the radiochemical procedure and the measurement of 210Po and 210Pb by alpha spectrometry with PIPS detectors. We will carry out measurements on water and particle samples from Benguela, which belongs to the COMICS II programme, to study the 210Pb-210Po disequilibrium in that zone. Finally, we will calculate carbon export fluxes, sinking velocities and export efficiency in the samples from the COMICS programme (COMICS I and COMICS II), comparing the results between an antarctic zone (South Georgia) and a subtropical zone (Benguela).