When designing curricula educators need to be mindful that students perceive practice education and professional socialisation have the greatest affect on professional identity formation. The findings reinforce the need for curricula to provide students with a range of practice experiences, which allow the observation and application of occupation-based practices. It highlights a need for educators to provide university-based curricula activities, which better prepare students for a potential dissonance between explicit occupation-based curricula and observed practice education experiences. The study indicates the need for further research into the role curricula content, and in particular practice education, plays in the multidimensional formation of professional development within entry-level programmes.
Glacial retreat is changing biogeochemical cycling in the Arctic, where glacial runoff contributes iron for oceanic shelf primary production. We hypothesize that in Svalbard fjords, microbes catalyze intense iron and sulfur cycling in loworganic-matter sediments. This is because low organic matter limits sulfide generation, allowing iron mobility to the water column instead of precipitation as iron monosulfides. In this study, we tested this with high-depth-resolution 16S rRNA gene libraries in the upper 20 cm at two sites in Van Keulenfjorden, Svalbard. At the site closer to the glaciers, iron-reducing Desulfuromonadales, iron-oxidizing Gallionella and Mariprofundus, and sulfur-oxidizing Thiotrichales and Epsilonproteobacteria were abundant above a 12-cm depth. Below this depth, the relative abundances of sequences for sulfate-reducing Desulfobacteraceae and Desulfobulbaceae increased. At the outer station, the switch from iron-cycling clades to sulfate reducers occurred at shallower depths (ϳ5 cm), corresponding to higher sulfate reduction rates. Relatively labile organic matter (shown by ␦ 13 C and C/N ratios) was more abundant at this outer site, and ordination analysis suggested that this affected microbial community structure in surface sediments. Network analysis revealed more correlations between predicted iron-and sulfur-cycling taxa and with uncultured clades proximal to the glacier. Together, these results suggest that complex microbial communities catalyze redox cycling of iron and sulfur, especially closer to the glacier, where sulfate reduction is limited due to low availability of organic matter. Diminished sulfate reduction in upper sediments enables iron to flux into the overlying water, where it may be transported to the shelf. IMPORTANCE Glacial runoff is a key source of iron for primary production in the Arctic. In the fjords of the Svalbard archipelago, glacial retreat is predicted to stimulate phytoplankton blooms that were previously restricted to outer margins. Decreased sediment delivery and enhanced primary production have been hypothesized to alter sediment biogeochemistry, wherein any free reduced iron that could potentially be delivered to the shelf will instead become buried with sulfide generated through microbial sulfate reduction. We support this hypothesis with sequencing data that showed increases in the relative abundance of sulfate reducing taxa and sulfate reduction rates with increasing distance from the glaciers in Van Keulenfjorden, Svalbard. Community structure was driven by organic geochemistry, suggesting that enhanced input of organic material will stimulate sulfate reduction in interior fjord sediments as glaciers continue to recede.
Benthic iron (Fe) fluxes from continental shelf sediments are an important source of Fe to the global ocean, yet the magnitude of these fluxes is not well constrained. Processing of Fe in sediments is of particular importance in the Arctic Ocean, which has a large shelf area and Fe limitation of primary productivity. In the Arctic fjords of Svalbard, glacial weathering delivers high volumes of Fe‐rich sediment to the fjord benthos. Benthic redox cycling of Fe proceeds through multiple pathways of reduction (i.e., dissimilatory iron reduction and reduction by hydrogen sulfide) and re‐oxidation. There are few estimates of the magnitude and controlling factors of the benthic Fe flux in Arctic fjords. We collected cores from two Svalbard fjords (Kongsfjorden and Lilliehöökfjorden), measured dissolved Fe2+ concentrations using a two‐dimensional sensor, and analyzed iron, manganese, carbon, and sulfur species to study benthic Fe fluxes. Benthic fluxes of Fe2+ vary throughout the fjords, with a “sweet spot” mid‐fjord controlled by the availability of organic carbon linked to sedimentation rates. The flux is also impacted by fjord circulation and sea ice cover, which influence overall mineralization rates in the sediment. Due to ongoing Arctic warming, we predict an increase in the benthic Fe2+ flux with reduced sea ice cover in some fjords and a decrease in the Fe2+ flux with the retreat of tidewater glaciers in other regions. Decreasing benthic Fe2+ fluxes in fjords may exacerbate Fe limitation of primary productivity in the Arctic Ocean.
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