Marine Microgels

PI

• Dennis Hansell

Marine microgels are poorly understood, small particulate entities in the ocean. In terms of abundance, they are commonly micron size and smaller. Their formation is by self-assembly and ionic bridging between organic macromolecules. Their role and dynamics in the ocean are only poorly known, but they are prospectively a sink for high molecular weight dissolved organic matter, making that material available as small particles as a substrate for heterotrophic microbes. Few oceanic distributions have been established for microgels, yet it is from distributions that controls can be inferred. Samples are being taken at 3 locations (two stations each) during the current (2021) occupation of A20 in the North Atlantic. These data, in the context of hyrographic and DOC data, will provide more insights on the pool.