Palmer LTER: Hydrogen peroxide in the Palmer-LTER region: III. Local sources and sinks

During the austral spring and autumn long-term ecological research (LTER) cruises aboard the R/V Polar Duke (PD92-09, November 1992) and R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer (NBP93-02, March through May 1993), we had an opportunity to investigate selected sources and sinks of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in a variety of antarctic coastal habitats. These measurements constituted one component of our comprehensive study of H2O2 dynamics (Karl et al.; Karl and Resing; Resing et al.; Antarctic Journal, in this issue). The potential source terms we evaluated were wet deposition (snow), glacial ice meltwater and land runoff, and in situ biological processes; photochemical processes are discussed in a companion paper (Karl and Resing, Antarctic Journal, in this issue). The primary H2O2 sink we investigated was bacterial ensymatic activity.