Role of macroscopic particles in deep-sea oxygen consumption

Macroscopic particles (>500 μm), including marine snow, large migrating zooplankton, and their fast-sinking fecal pellets, represent primary vehicles of organic carbon flux from the surface to the deep sea. In contrast, freely suspended microscopic particles such as bacteria and protists do not s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2010-05, Vol.107 (18), p.8287-8291
Main Authors: Bochdansky, Alexander B, van Aken, Hendrik M, Herndl, Gerhard J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atlantic Ocean
Bacteria
Biological Sciences
Biomass
Chemical suspensions
Coefficients
Deep water
Metabolism
Oceanography
Oceans
Oxygen
Oxygen Consumption
Particle Size
Physical Sciences
Plankton
Radiation counters
Sea water
Seas
Tropical Climate
Zooplankton
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Summary:Macroscopic particles (>500 μm), including marine snow, large migrating zooplankton, and their fast-sinking fecal pellets, represent primary vehicles of organic carbon flux from the surface to the deep sea. In contrast, freely suspended microscopic particles such as bacteria and protists do not sink, and they contribute the largest portion of metabolism in the upper ocean. In bathy- and abyssopelagic layers of the ocean (2,000–6,000 m), however, microscopic particles may not dominate oxygen consumption. In a section across the tropical Atlantic, we show that macroscopic particle peaks occurred frequently in the deep sea, whereas microscopic particles were barely detectable. In 10 of 17 deep-sea profiles (>2,000 m depth), macroscopic particle abundances were more strongly cross-correlated with oxygen deficits than microscopic particles, suggesting that biomass bound to large particles dominates overall deep-sea metabolism.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0913744107