TITLE:    Palmer LTER: Hydrogen Peroxide in the Palmer LTER Region: I. An 
	  Introduction
AUTHOR:   DM Karl, J Resing, G Tien and R Letelier, D Jones
Palmer LTER Contribution #19
ANJ 1993  V28(5) pg 225-226

The Palmer-LTER program is a co-ordinated multi-investigator and
interdisciplinary long-term ecological study of an ice-dominated,
high-latitude marine ecosystem.  Our interest in studying hydrogen peroxide
(H2O2) dynamics in this Southern Ocean habitat was inspired by two ecological
applications of these data.  First, it has been suggested that H2O2
concentrations, when coupled with production and decay rates, can be used as a
tracer for vertical advection in surface ocean waters (Johnson et al. 1989).
To the extent that vertical mixing is a critical variable in determining the
production of Southern Ocean ecosystems (Mitchell and Holm-Hansen 1991), this
information is fundamental to the objectives of the Palmer-LTER program.
Second, because H2O2 is a common intermediate, or reaction product, of
photochemical reactions of oxygen with organic compounds (Zafiriou 1983), it
may provide a convenient analytical procedure for assessing photolytic
alteration of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in seawater.  Recent studies
suggest that photochemical processes may play a heretofore unrecognized role in
the global carbon cycle (Mopper and Zhou 1990).