Publication Date:
2013-06-04
Description:
Based on two summer spatio-temporal data sets obtained from the northern South China Sea shelf and basin, this study reveals contrast relationships among bacterial production (BP), dissolved organic (DOC) and primary production (PP) in the transition zone from the neritic to the oceanic regions. Inside the mid-shelf where inorganic nutrient supplies from river discharge and internal waves were potentially abundant, BP, DOC and PP were positively inter-correlated, whereas these three measurements became uncorrelated in the oligotrophic outer-shelf and slope. A previously proposed malfunctioning microbial-loop hypothesis was extended to address the availability of limiting mineral could affect the couplings/de-couplings between the source (i.e. phytoplankton) and sink (i.e. bacteria) of biogenic organic carbon, and thus DOC dynamics. The positive correlation of the BP/PP ratios vs. phosphate concentrations in the inner-shelf implies that if anthropogenic mineral loading keeps increasing in the foreseeable future, the near-shore zone may become more heterotrophic rendering the system a stronger source of CO2.
Print ISSN:
1810-6277
Electronic ISSN:
1810-6285
Topics:
Biology
,
Geosciences
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