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Contribution of picoplankton to the total particulate organic carbon (POC) concentration in the eastern South Pacific
1Graduate Programme in Oceanography, Department of Oceanography, University of Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile
2Department of Oceanography and Center for Oceanographic Research in the eastern South Pacific, University of Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile
3CNRS, Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche, 06230 Villefranche-sur-Mer, France ; Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche, 06230 Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
4Station Biologique, CNRS, INSU et Université Pierre et Marie, 29482 Roscoff Ceder, France
Abstract. Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, picophytoeukaryotes and bacterioplankton abundances and contributions to the total particulate organic carbon concentration (POC), derived from the total particle beam attenuation coefficient (cp), were determined across the eastern South Pacific between the Marquesas Islands and the coast of Chile. All flow cytometrically derived abundances decreased towards the hyper-oligotrophic centre of the gyre and were highest at the coast, except for Prochlorococcus, which is not detected under eutrophic conditions. Temperature and nutrient availability appeared important in modulating picophytoplankton abundance, according to the prevailing trophic conditions. Although the non-vegetal particles tended to dominate the cp signal everywhere along the transect (50 to 83%), this dominance seemed to weaken from oligo- to eutrophic conditions, the contributions by vegetal and non-vegetal particles being about equal under mature upwelling conditions. Spatial variability in the vegetal compartment was more important than the non-vegetal one in shaping the water column particulate attenuation coefficient. Spatial variability in picophytoplankton biomass could be traced by changes in both Tchla and cp. Finally, picophytoeukaryotes contributed with ~38% on average to the total integrated phytoplankton carbon biomass or vegetal attenuation signal along the transect, as determined by direct size measurements on cells sorted by flow cytometry and optical theory. The role of picophytoeukaryotes in carbon and energy flow would therefore be very important, even under hyper-oligotrophic conditions.
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Citation: Grob, C., Ulloa, O., Claustre, H., Huot, Y., Alarcón, G., and Marie, D.: Contribution of picoplankton to the total particulate organic carbon (POC) concentration in the eastern South Pacific, Biogeosciences Discuss., 4, 1461-1497, 2007. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager
