Carbohydrates constitute one very important class of dissolved organic compounds in marine waters.
The goal of this project is to quantify, characterize and improve the knowledge of the biogeochemistry of this class of compounds in marine waters including sediment porewaters. We also study turnover rates of carbohydrates in sediments, pathways of degradation for these compounds and their role in benthic carbon cycling. One reason so little is known about marine DOM is that a very small fraction of it has been chemically identified, which is mainly due to analytical problems. Therefore, significant effort is paid to development of analytical techniques capable of separating and quantifying a large range of carbohydrates. A free-vehicle benthic chamber lander has been constructed which is used for the in situ measurements of benthic fluxes.