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Carbon Dynamics within Cyclonic Eddies: Insights from a Biomarker Study

It is generally assumed that episodic nutrient pulses by cyclonic eddies into surface waters support a significant fraction of the primary production in subtropical low-nutrient environments in the northern hemisphere. However, contradictory results related to the influence of eddies on particulate...

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Autores principales: Alonso-González, Iván J., Arístegui, Javier, Lee, Cindy, Sanchez-Vidal, Anna, Calafat, Antoni, Fabrés, Joan, Sangrá, Pablo, Mason, Evan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3875410/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24386098
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082447
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author Alonso-González, Iván J.
Arístegui, Javier
Lee, Cindy
Sanchez-Vidal, Anna
Calafat, Antoni
Fabrés, Joan
Sangrá, Pablo
Mason, Evan
author_facet Alonso-González, Iván J.
Arístegui, Javier
Lee, Cindy
Sanchez-Vidal, Anna
Calafat, Antoni
Fabrés, Joan
Sangrá, Pablo
Mason, Evan
author_sort Alonso-González, Iván J.
collection PubMed
description It is generally assumed that episodic nutrient pulses by cyclonic eddies into surface waters support a significant fraction of the primary production in subtropical low-nutrient environments in the northern hemisphere. However, contradictory results related to the influence of eddies on particulate organic carbon (POC) export have been reported. As a step toward understanding the complex mechanisms that control export of material within eddies, we present here results from a sediment trap mooring deployed within the path of cyclonic eddies generated near the Canary Islands over a 1.5-year period. We find that, during summer and autumn (when surface stratification is stronger, eddies are more intense, and a relative enrichment in CaCO(3) forming organisms occurs), POC export to the deep ocean was 2–4 times higher than observed for the rest of the year. On the contrary, during winter and spring (when mixing is strongest and the seasonal phytoplankton bloom occurs), no significant enhancement of POC export associated with eddies was observed. Our biomarker results suggest that a large fraction of the material exported from surface waters during the late-winter bloom is either recycled in the mesopelagic zone or bypassed by migrant zooplankton to the deep scattering layer, where it would disaggregate to smaller particles or be excreted as dissolved organic carbon. Cyclonic eddies, however, would enhance carbon export below 1000 m depth during the summer stratification period, when eddies are more intense and frequent, highlighting the important role of eddies and their different biological communities on the regional carbon cycle.
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spelling pubmed-38754102014-01-02 Carbon Dynamics within Cyclonic Eddies: Insights from a Biomarker Study Alonso-González, Iván J. Arístegui, Javier Lee, Cindy Sanchez-Vidal, Anna Calafat, Antoni Fabrés, Joan Sangrá, Pablo Mason, Evan PLoS One Research Article It is generally assumed that episodic nutrient pulses by cyclonic eddies into surface waters support a significant fraction of the primary production in subtropical low-nutrient environments in the northern hemisphere. However, contradictory results related to the influence of eddies on particulate organic carbon (POC) export have been reported. As a step toward understanding the complex mechanisms that control export of material within eddies, we present here results from a sediment trap mooring deployed within the path of cyclonic eddies generated near the Canary Islands over a 1.5-year period. We find that, during summer and autumn (when surface stratification is stronger, eddies are more intense, and a relative enrichment in CaCO(3) forming organisms occurs), POC export to the deep ocean was 2–4 times higher than observed for the rest of the year. On the contrary, during winter and spring (when mixing is strongest and the seasonal phytoplankton bloom occurs), no significant enhancement of POC export associated with eddies was observed. Our biomarker results suggest that a large fraction of the material exported from surface waters during the late-winter bloom is either recycled in the mesopelagic zone or bypassed by migrant zooplankton to the deep scattering layer, where it would disaggregate to smaller particles or be excreted as dissolved organic carbon. Cyclonic eddies, however, would enhance carbon export below 1000 m depth during the summer stratification period, when eddies are more intense and frequent, highlighting the important role of eddies and their different biological communities on the regional carbon cycle. Public Library of Science 2013-12-30 /pmc/articles/PMC3875410/ /pubmed/24386098 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082447 Text en © 2013 Alonso-González et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Alonso-González, Iván J.
Arístegui, Javier
Lee, Cindy
Sanchez-Vidal, Anna
Calafat, Antoni
Fabrés, Joan
Sangrá, Pablo
Mason, Evan
Carbon Dynamics within Cyclonic Eddies: Insights from a Biomarker Study
title Carbon Dynamics within Cyclonic Eddies: Insights from a Biomarker Study
title_full Carbon Dynamics within Cyclonic Eddies: Insights from a Biomarker Study
title_fullStr Carbon Dynamics within Cyclonic Eddies: Insights from a Biomarker Study
title_full_unstemmed Carbon Dynamics within Cyclonic Eddies: Insights from a Biomarker Study
title_short Carbon Dynamics within Cyclonic Eddies: Insights from a Biomarker Study
title_sort carbon dynamics within cyclonic eddies: insights from a biomarker study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3875410/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24386098
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082447
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