Publication Date:
2022-05-25
Description:
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles 29 (2015): 175–193, doi:10.1002/2014GB004935.
Description:
The attenuation of sinking particle fluxes through the mesopelagic zone is an important process that controls the sequestration of carbon and the distribution of other elements throughout the oceans. Case studies at two contrasting sites, the oligotrophic regime of the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) and the mesotrophic waters of the west Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) sector of the Southern Ocean, revealed large differences in the rates of particle-attached microbial respiration and the average sinking velocities of marine particles, two parameters that affect the transfer efficiency of particulate matter from the base of the euphotic zone into the deep ocean. Rapid average sinking velocities of 270 ± 150 m d−1 were observed along the WAP, whereas the average velocity was 49 ± 25 m d−1 at the BATS site. Respiration rates of particle-attached microbes were measured using novel RESPIRE (REspiration of Sinking Particles In the subsuRface ocEan) sediment traps that first intercepts sinking particles then incubates them in situ. RESPIRE experiments yielded flux-normalized respiration rates of 0.4 ± 0.1 day−1 at BATS when excluding an outlier of 1.52 day−1, while these rates were undetectable along the WAP (0.01 ± 0.02 day−1). At BATS, flux-normalized respiration rates decreased exponentially with respect to depth below the euphotic zone with a 75% reduction between the 150 and 500 m depths. These findings provide quantitative and mechanistic insights into the processes that control the transfer efficiency of particle flux through the mesopelagic and its variability throughout the global oceans.
Description:
Funding was provided by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Rinehart Access to the Sea Program, the WHOI Coastal Oceans Institute, WHOI Academic Programs Office, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) for support of PAL (ANT-0823101), FOODBANCS, and WAPflux (ANT- 83886600) projects. A grant from the NSF Carbon and Water Program (06028416) supported the development of these methods.
Description:
2015-08-25
Keywords:
Biological pump
;
Marine particles
;
Carbon flux
;
Sinking velocity
;
Microbial respiration
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
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