Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 21 of 21

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Introduction To The French Geotraces North Atlantic Transect (Ga01): Geovide Cruise, Géraldine Sarthou, Pascale Lherminier, Eric P. Achterberg, Fernando Alonso-Pérez, Eva Bucciarelli, Julia Boutorh, Vincent Bouvier, Edward A. Boyle, Pierre Branellec, Lidia I. Carracedo, Nuria Casacuberta, Maxi Castrillejo, Marie Cheize, Leonardo Contreira Pereira, Daniel Cossa, Nathalie Daniault, Emmanuel De Saint-Léger, Frank Dehairs, Feifei Deng, Floriane Desprez De Gésincourt, Jérémy Devesa, Lorna Foliot, Debany Fonseca-Batista, Morgane Gallinari, Maribel I. Garciá-Ibáñez, Arthur Gourain, Emilie Grossteffan, Michel Hamon, Lars Eric Heimbürger, Gideon M. Henderson, Catherine Jeandel, Catherine Kermabon, François Lacan Nov 2018

Introduction To The French Geotraces North Atlantic Transect (Ga01): Geovide Cruise, Géraldine Sarthou, Pascale Lherminier, Eric P. Achterberg, Fernando Alonso-Pérez, Eva Bucciarelli, Julia Boutorh, Vincent Bouvier, Edward A. Boyle, Pierre Branellec, Lidia I. Carracedo, Nuria Casacuberta, Maxi Castrillejo, Marie Cheize, Leonardo Contreira Pereira, Daniel Cossa, Nathalie Daniault, Emmanuel De Saint-Léger, Frank Dehairs, Feifei Deng, Floriane Desprez De Gésincourt, Jérémy Devesa, Lorna Foliot, Debany Fonseca-Batista, Morgane Gallinari, Maribel I. Garciá-Ibáñez, Arthur Gourain, Emilie Grossteffan, Michel Hamon, Lars Eric Heimbürger, Gideon M. Henderson, Catherine Jeandel, Catherine Kermabon, François Lacan

Faculty Publications

© 2018 Author(s). The GEOVIDE cruise, a collaborative project within the framework of the international GEOTRACES programme, was conducted along the French-led section in the North Atlantic Ocean (Section GA01), between 15 May and 30 June 2014. In this special issue (https://www.biogeosciences.net/special-issue900.html), results from GEOVIDE, including physical oceanography and trace element and isotope cyclings, are presented among 18 articles. Here, the scientific context, project objectives, and scientific strategy of GEOVIDE are provided, along with an overview of the main results from the articles published in the special issue.


Response To Turner 2017, Amy M. Schueller, Robert T. Leaf, Raymond M. Mroch Iii, Geneviève M. Nesslage Nov 2018

Response To Turner 2017, Amy M. Schueller, Robert T. Leaf, Raymond M. Mroch Iii, Geneviève M. Nesslage

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


A Statistical Analysis Of Steve, Bea Gallardo‐Lacourt, Y. Nishimura, E. Donovan, G. W. Gillies, W. E. Archer, Omar A. Nava, E. L. Spanswick Nov 2018

A Statistical Analysis Of Steve, Bea Gallardo‐Lacourt, Y. Nishimura, E. Donovan, G. W. Gillies, W. E. Archer, Omar A. Nava, E. L. Spanswick

Faculty Publications

There has been an exciting recent development in auroral research associated with the discovery of a new subauroral phenomenon called STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement). Although STEVE has been documented by amateur night sky watchers for decades, it is as yet an unidentified upper atmosphere phenomenon. Observed first by amateur auroral photographers, STEVE appears as a narrow luminous structure across the night sky over thousands of kilometers in the east‐west direction. In this paper, we present the first statistical analysis of the properties of 28 STEVE events identified using Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) …


Estimation Of Atmospheric Turbulence Using Differential Motion Of Extended Features In Time-Lapse Imagery, Santasri Bose-Pillai, Jack E. Mccrae, Christopher A. Rice, Ryan A. Wood, Conner E. Murphy, Steven T. Fiorino Oct 2018

Estimation Of Atmospheric Turbulence Using Differential Motion Of Extended Features In Time-Lapse Imagery, Santasri Bose-Pillai, Jack E. Mccrae, Christopher A. Rice, Ryan A. Wood, Conner E. Murphy, Steven T. Fiorino

Faculty Publications

We address the design, development, and testing of a pointer/tracker as a probe beam for the purpose of making high-speed, aero-optical measurements of the flow over a scaled beam director turret. The tracker uses retro-reflection of the probe beam off of a Reflexite annulus surrounding the turret. The constraints of the design required a near-total-commercial off the shelf system that could be quickly installed and removed in a rented aircraft. Baseline measurements of environmental vibrations are used to predict pointing performance; mitigation of line-of-sight jitter on the probe beam is achieved through passive isolation and the design of relay optics. …


Serpentinization: Connecting Geochemistry, Ancient Metabolism And Industrial Hydrogenation, Martina Preiner, Joana C. Xavier, Fliipa L. Sousa, Verena Zimorski, Anna Neubeck, Susan Q. Lang, H. Chris Greenwell, Karl Kleinermanns, Harun Tüysüz, Tom M. Mccollom, Nils G. Holm, William F. Martin Sep 2018

Serpentinization: Connecting Geochemistry, Ancient Metabolism And Industrial Hydrogenation, Martina Preiner, Joana C. Xavier, Fliipa L. Sousa, Verena Zimorski, Anna Neubeck, Susan Q. Lang, H. Chris Greenwell, Karl Kleinermanns, Harun Tüysüz, Tom M. Mccollom, Nils G. Holm, William F. Martin

Faculty Publications

Rock–water–carbon interactions germane to serpentinization in hydrothermal vents have occurred for over 4 billion years, ever since there was liquid water on Earth. Serpentinization converts iron(II) containing minerals and water to magnetite (Fe3O4) plus H2. The hydrogen can generate native metals such as awaruite (Ni3Fe), a common serpentinization product. Awaruite catalyzes the synthesis of methane from H2 and CO2 under hydrothermal conditions. Native iron and nickel catalyze the synthesis of formate, methanol, acetate, and pyruvate—intermediates of the acetyl-CoA pathway, the most ancient pathway of CO2 fixation. Carbon monoxide dehydrogenase …


Evolving Paradigms In Biological Carbon Cycling In The Ocean, Chuanlun Zhang, Hongyue Dang, Farooq Azam, Ronald Benner, Louis Legendre, Uta Passow, Luca Polimene, Carol Robinson, Curtis A. Suttle, Nianzhi Jiao Jul 2018

Evolving Paradigms In Biological Carbon Cycling In The Ocean, Chuanlun Zhang, Hongyue Dang, Farooq Azam, Ronald Benner, Louis Legendre, Uta Passow, Luca Polimene, Carol Robinson, Curtis A. Suttle, Nianzhi Jiao

Faculty Publications

Carbon is a keystone element in global biogeochemical cycles. It plays a fundamental role in biotic and abiotic processes in the ocean, which intertwine to mediate the chemistry and redox status of carbon in the ocean and the atmosphere. The interactions between abiotic and biogenic carbon (e.g. CO2, CaCO3, organic matter) in the ocean are complex, and there is a half-century-old enigma about the existence of a huge reservoir of recalcitrant dissolved organic carbon (RDOC) that equates to the magnitude of the pool of atmospheric CO2. The concepts of the biological carbon pump (BCP) …


An Implementation Strategy To Quantify The Marine Microbial Carbon Pump And Its Sensitivity To Global Change, Carol Robinson, Douglas Wallace, Jung-Ho Hyun, Luca Polimene, Ronald Benner, Yao Zhang, Ruanhong Cai, Rui Zhang, Nianzhi Jiao Jul 2018

An Implementation Strategy To Quantify The Marine Microbial Carbon Pump And Its Sensitivity To Global Change, Carol Robinson, Douglas Wallace, Jung-Ho Hyun, Luca Polimene, Ronald Benner, Yao Zhang, Ruanhong Cai, Rui Zhang, Nianzhi Jiao

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


On The Approximation Of The Inverse Error Covariances Of High-Resolution Satellite Altimetry Data, Max Yaremchuk, Joseph M. D'Addezio, Gleb Panteleev, Gregg Jacobs Jul 2018

On The Approximation Of The Inverse Error Covariances Of High-Resolution Satellite Altimetry Data, Max Yaremchuk, Joseph M. D'Addezio, Gleb Panteleev, Gregg Jacobs

Faculty Publications

© 2018 Royal Meteorological Society High-resolution (swath) altimeter missions scheduled to monitor the ocean surface in the near future have observation-error covariances (OECs) with slowly decaying off-diagonal elements. This property presents a challenge for the majority of the data assimilation algorithms which were designed under the assumption of the diagonal OECs being easily inverted. In this note, we present a method of approximating the inverse of a dense OEC by a sparse matrix represented by the polynomial of spatially inhomogeneous differential operators, whose coefficients are optimized to fit the target OEC by minimizing a quadratic cost function. Explicit expressions for …


The Impact Of The Deepwater Horizon Blowout On Historic Shipwreck-Associated Sediment Microbiomes In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Leila J. Hamdan, Jennifer Salerno, Allen H. Reed, Samantha B. Joye, Melanie Damour Jun 2018

The Impact Of The Deepwater Horizon Blowout On Historic Shipwreck-Associated Sediment Microbiomes In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Leila J. Hamdan, Jennifer Salerno, Allen H. Reed, Samantha B. Joye, Melanie Damour

Faculty Publications

More than 2,000 historic shipwrecks spanning 500 years of history, rest on the Gulf of Mexico seafloor. Shipwrecks serve as artificial reefs and hotspots of biodiversity by providing hard substrate, something rare in deep ocean regions. The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) spill discharged crude oil into the deep Gulf. Because of physical, biological, and chemical interactions, DWH oil was deposited on the seafloor, where historic shipwrecks are present. This study examined sediment microbiomes at seven historic shipwrecks. Steel-hulled, World War II-era shipwrecks and wooden-hulled, 19th century shipwrecks within and outside of the surface oiled area and subsurface plume were examined. Analysis …


Seasonal Patterns In Phytoplankton Biomass Across The Northern And Deep Gulf Of Mexico: A Numerical Model Study, Fabian A. Gomez, Sang-Ki Lee, Yanyun Liu, Frank J. Hernandez Jr., Frank E. Muller-Karger, John T. Lamkin Jun 2018

Seasonal Patterns In Phytoplankton Biomass Across The Northern And Deep Gulf Of Mexico: A Numerical Model Study, Fabian A. Gomez, Sang-Ki Lee, Yanyun Liu, Frank J. Hernandez Jr., Frank E. Muller-Karger, John T. Lamkin

Faculty Publications

Biogeochemical models that simulate realistic lower-trophic-level dynamics, including the representation of main phytoplankton and zooplankton functional groups, are valuable tools for improving our understanding of natural and anthropogenic disturbances in marine ecosystems. Previous three-dimensional biogeochemical modeling studies in the northern and deep Gulf of Mexico (GoM) have used only one phytoplankton and one zooplankton type. To advance our modeling capability of the GoM ecosystem and to investigate the dominant spatial and seasonal patterns of phytoplankton biomass, we configured a 13-component biogeochemical model that explicitly represents nanophytoplankton, diatoms, micro-, and mesozooplankton. Our model outputs compare reasonably well with observed patterns in …


Isotopic Composition Of Sinking Particles: Oil Effects, Recovery And Baselines In The Gulf Of Mexico, 2010-2015, Jeff Chanton, Sarah L.C. Giering, Samantha H. Bosman, Kelsey L. Rogers, Julia Sweet, Vernon Asper, Arne-R. Diercks, Uta Passow May 2018

Isotopic Composition Of Sinking Particles: Oil Effects, Recovery And Baselines In The Gulf Of Mexico, 2010-2015, Jeff Chanton, Sarah L.C. Giering, Samantha H. Bosman, Kelsey L. Rogers, Julia Sweet, Vernon Asper, Arne-R. Diercks, Uta Passow

Faculty Publications

The extensive release of oil during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the northern Gulf of Mexico perturbed the pelagic ecosystem and associated sinking material. To gauge the recovery and post-spill baseline sources, we measured D14C, d13C and d34S of sinking particles near the spill site and at a reference site and natural seep site. Particulates were collected August 2010–April 2016 in sediment traps moored at sites with depths of 1160–1660 m. Near the spill site, changes in D14C indicated a 3-year recovery period, while d34S indicated 1–2 years, which agreed with estimates of 1–2 years based on hydrocarbon composition. …


Scales Of Seafloor Sediment Resuspension In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Arne-R. Diercks, Clayton Dike, Vernon Asper, Steven F. Dimarco, Jeff Chanton, Uta Passow Apr 2018

Scales Of Seafloor Sediment Resuspension In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Arne-R. Diercks, Clayton Dike, Vernon Asper, Steven F. Dimarco, Jeff Chanton, Uta Passow

Faculty Publications

Seafloor sediment resuspension events of different scales and magnitudes and the resulting deep (>1,000 m) benthic nepheloid layers were investigated in the northern Gulf of Mexico during Fall 2012 to Summer 2013. Time-series data of size-specific in-situ settling speeds of marine snow in the benthic nepheloid layer (moored flux cameras), particle size distributions (profiling camera), currents (various current meters) and stacked time-series flux data (sediment traps) were combined to recognize resuspension events ranging from small-scale local, to small-scale far-field to hurricane-scale. One smallscale local resuspension event caused by inertial currents was identified based on local high current speeds ( …


Functioning Of Coastal River-Dominated Ecosystems And Implications For Oil Spill Response: From Observations To Mechanisms And Models, Adam T. Greer, Alan M. Shiller, Eileen E. Hoffman, Jerry D. Wiggert, Sally J. Warner, Sabrina M. Parra, Chudong Pan, Jeffrey W. Book, Dongjoo Joung, Steven K. Dykstra, Jeffrey W. Krause, Brian Dzwonkowski, Inia M. Soto, M. Kemal Cambazoglu, Alison L. Deary, Christian Briseño-Avena, Adam D. Boyette, Jessica A. Kastler, Virginie Sanial, Laura Hode, Uchenna Nwankwo, Luciano M. Chiaverano, Stephan J. O'Brien, Patrick J. Fitzpatrick, Yee H. Lau, Michael S. Dinniman, Kevin M. Martin, Peng Ho, Allison K. Mojzis, Stephan D. Howden, Frank J. Hernandez, Ian Church, Travis N. Miles, Su Sponaugle, James N. Moum, Robert A. Arnone, Robert K. Cowen, Gregg A. Jacobs, Oscar Schofield, William M. Graham Apr 2018

Functioning Of Coastal River-Dominated Ecosystems And Implications For Oil Spill Response: From Observations To Mechanisms And Models, Adam T. Greer, Alan M. Shiller, Eileen E. Hoffman, Jerry D. Wiggert, Sally J. Warner, Sabrina M. Parra, Chudong Pan, Jeffrey W. Book, Dongjoo Joung, Steven K. Dykstra, Jeffrey W. Krause, Brian Dzwonkowski, Inia M. Soto, M. Kemal Cambazoglu, Alison L. Deary, Christian Briseño-Avena, Adam D. Boyette, Jessica A. Kastler, Virginie Sanial, Laura Hode, Uchenna Nwankwo, Luciano M. Chiaverano, Stephan J. O'Brien, Patrick J. Fitzpatrick, Yee H. Lau, Michael S. Dinniman, Kevin M. Martin, Peng Ho, Allison K. Mojzis, Stephan D. Howden, Frank J. Hernandez, Ian Church, Travis N. Miles, Su Sponaugle, James N. Moum, Robert A. Arnone, Robert K. Cowen, Gregg A. Jacobs, Oscar Schofield, William M. Graham

Faculty Publications

Coastal river-dominated oceans are physically complex, biologically productive, and intimately connected to human socioeconomic activity. The Deepwater Horizon blowout and subsequent advection of oil into coastal waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM) highlighted the complex linkages among oceanographic processes within this river-dominated system and knowledge gaps about it that resulted in imprecise information on both oil transport and ecosystem consequences. The interdisciplinary research program implemented through the CONsortium for oil exposure pathways in COastal River-Dominated Ecosystems (CONCORDE) is designed to identify and quantitatively assess key physical, biological, and geochemical processes acting in the nGOM, in order to provide …


Concorde Meteorological Analysis (Cma) - Data Guide, Patrick Fitzpatrick, Yee H. Lau Apr 2018

Concorde Meteorological Analysis (Cma) - Data Guide, Patrick Fitzpatrick, Yee H. Lau

Faculty Publications

CONCORDE is the CONsortium for oil spill exposure pathways in COastal River-Dominated Ecosystems (CONCORDE), and is an interdisciplinary research program funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) to conduct scientific studies of the impacts of oil, dispersed oil and dispersant on the Gulf’s ecosystem (Greer et al. 2018). A CONCORDE goal is to implement a synthesis model containing circulation and biogeochemistry components of the Northern Gulf of Mexico shelf system which can ultimately aid in prediction of oil spill transport and impacts.

The CONCORDE Meteorological Analysis (CMA) is an hourly gridded NetCDF dataset which provides atmospheric forcing for …


Parasite Component Community Of Smalltooth Sawfish Off Florida: Diversity, Conservation Concerns, And Research Applications, Micah D. Bakenhaster, Stephen A. Bullard, Stephen S. Curran, Delane C. Kritsky, Erin H. Leone, Lauren K. Partridge, Carlos F. Ruiz, Rachel M. Scharer, Gregg R. Poulakis Feb 2018

Parasite Component Community Of Smalltooth Sawfish Off Florida: Diversity, Conservation Concerns, And Research Applications, Micah D. Bakenhaster, Stephen A. Bullard, Stephen S. Curran, Delane C. Kritsky, Erin H. Leone, Lauren K. Partridge, Carlos F. Ruiz, Rachel M. Scharer, Gregg R. Poulakis

Faculty Publications

Compared with that of other charismatic elasmobranchs, the component community of metazoan parasites infecting endangered smalltooth sawfish Pristis pectinata is exceedingly poorly characterized: adults of Dermophthirioides pristidis and Neoheterocotyle inpristi (ectoparasitic flatworms of skin and gill, respectively) were the only confirmed parasites prior to the description, based on specimens reported herein, of Mycteronastes caalusi. Our opportune and directed parasitological examinations of 290 smalltooth sawfish (277 live inspections; 13 necropsies; 671 to 2640 mm stretch total length) in south Florida coastal waters revealed at least 8 species of Platyhelminthes, 9 of Arthropoda, 4 of Annelida, and 1 of Nematoda. This …


Mixing It Up In The Ocean Carbon Cycle And The Removal Of Refractory Dissolved Organic Carbon, Yuan Shen, Ronald Benner Feb 2018

Mixing It Up In The Ocean Carbon Cycle And The Removal Of Refractory Dissolved Organic Carbon, Yuan Shen, Ronald Benner

Faculty Publications

A large quantity of reduced carbon is sequestered in the ocean as refractory dissolved molecules that persist through several circuits of global overturning circulation. Key aspects of the cycling of refractory dissolved organic carbon (DOC) remain unknown, making it challenging to predict how this large carbon reservoir will respond to climate change. Herein we investigate mechanisms that remove refractory DOC using bioassay experiments with DOC isolated from surface, mesopelagic and deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The isolated DOC was refractory to degradation by native microbial communities, even at elevated concentrations. However, when the refractory DOC was introduced to a …


The Ecosystem Baseline For Particle Flux In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, S.L.C. Giering, Beizhan Yan, Vernon Asper, Arne-R. Diercks, Jeff Chanton, Masha Pitiranggon, U. Passow Jan 2018

The Ecosystem Baseline For Particle Flux In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, S.L.C. Giering, Beizhan Yan, Vernon Asper, Arne-R. Diercks, Jeff Chanton, Masha Pitiranggon, U. Passow

Faculty Publications

Response management and damage assessment during and after environmental disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill require an ecological baseline and a solid understanding of the main drivers of the ecosystem. During the DWH event, a large fraction of the spilled oil was transported to depth via sinking marine snow, a routing of spilled oil unexpected to emergency response planners. Because baseline knowledge of particle export in the Northern Gulf of Mexico and how it varies spatially and temporally was limited, we conducted a detailed assessment of the potential drivers of deep (~1400 m depth) particle fluxes during …


Understanding The Structure And Resilience Of Trophic Dynamics In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Using Network Analysis, Megumi C. Oshima, Robert T. Leaf Jan 2018

Understanding The Structure And Resilience Of Trophic Dynamics In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico Using Network Analysis, Megumi C. Oshima, Robert T. Leaf

Faculty Publications

Network analysis is a framework that allows integration and evaluation of predator-prey interactions. In the present study, we synthesized diet composition information from 94 published studies (n = 12,335 unique predator-prey interactions) that reported food habits of teleost fishes in the northern Gulf of Mexico (nGOM). Using this information, we constructed 12 weighted trophic network models using three diet metrics and four levels of taxonomic resolution of predators and prey. We evaluated network resilience to simulated random and directed taxa loss by assessing changes in topological indices "complexity," "connectance," "efficiency," and "robustness" with respect to a priori minima. We found …


Shelf Cross-Shore Flows Under Storm-Driven Conditions: Role Of Stratification, Shoreline Orientation, And Bathymetry., Xiaodong Wu, Nirnimesh Kumar, George Voulgaris Jan 2018

Shelf Cross-Shore Flows Under Storm-Driven Conditions: Role Of Stratification, Shoreline Orientation, And Bathymetry., Xiaodong Wu, Nirnimesh Kumar, George Voulgaris

Faculty Publications

Numerical simulations are used to study the response of Long Bay, SC (USA), a typical coastal embayment with curved coastline located on the South Atlantic Bight, to realistic, climatologically defined, synoptic storm forcing. Synoptic storms, consisting of cold and warm 25 fronts as well as tropical storms, are used as forcing under both mixed and stratified initial conditions. The analysis focuses on the development of cross-shore shelf circulation and the relative contributions of regionally defined cross-shore winds and alongshore bathymetric variation. The simulation results show that, under stratified conditions, the regionally defined offshore directed wind component promotes upwelling during the …


The Ecosystem Baseline For Particle Flux In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, S. L.C. Giering, B. Yan, Julia Sweet, V. Asper, A. Diercks, J. P. Chanton, M. Pitiranggon, Uta Passow Jan 2018

The Ecosystem Baseline For Particle Flux In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, S. L.C. Giering, B. Yan, Julia Sweet, V. Asper, A. Diercks, J. P. Chanton, M. Pitiranggon, Uta Passow

Faculty Publications

Response management and damage assessment during and after environmental disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill require an ecological baseline and a solid understanding of the main drivers of the ecosystem. During the DWH event, a large fraction of the spilled oil was transported to depth via sinking marine snow, a routing of spilled oil unexpected to emergency response planners. Because baseline knowledge of particle export in the Northern Gulf of Mexico and how it varies spatially and temporally was limited, we conducted a detailed assessment of the potential drivers of deep (~1400 m depth) particle fluxes during …


Biochemical And Structural Controls On The Decomposition Dynamics Of Boreal Upland Forest Moss Tissues, Michael Philben, Sara Butler, Sharon A. Billings, Ronald Benner, Kate A. Edwards, Susan E. Ziegler Jan 2018

Biochemical And Structural Controls On The Decomposition Dynamics Of Boreal Upland Forest Moss Tissues, Michael Philben, Sara Butler, Sharon A. Billings, Ronald Benner, Kate A. Edwards, Susan E. Ziegler

Faculty Publications

Mosses contribute an average of 20 % of boreal upland forest net primary productivity and are frequently observed to degrade slowly compared to vascular plants. If this is caused primarily by the chemical complexity of their tissues, moss decomposition could exhibit high temperature sensitivity (measured as Q10) due to high activation energy, which would imply that soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks derived from moss remains are especially vulnerable to decomposition with warming. Alternatively, the physical structure of the moss cell-wall biochemical matrix could inhibit decomposition, resulting in low decay rates and low temperature sensitivity. We tested these hypotheses by …