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www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/5/871/2008/
doi:10.5194/bgd-5-871-2008
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under a Creative Commons License.
Contrasting distribution of aggregates >100 μm in the upper kilometre of the South-Eastern Pacific
1Université Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris 6, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche; CNRS, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, 06230 Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
2Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
Abstract. Large sinking particles transport organic and inorganic matter into the deeper layers of the oceans. From 70 to 90% of the superficial particulate material is disaggregated within the upper 1000 m. This decrease with depth indicates that remineralization processes are intense during sedimentation. Generally, the estimates of vertical flux rely on the sediment trap data but difficulties inherent in their design, limit the reliability of this information. During the BIOSOPE study in the southeastern Pacific, 76 vertical casts using the Underwater Video Profiler (UVP) and deployments of a limited number of drifting sediment traps provided an opportunity to fit the UVP data to sediment trap flux measurements. We applied than the calculated UVP flux in the upper 1000 m to the whole 8000 km BIOSOPE transect. Comparison between the large particulate material (LPM) abundance and the estimated fluxes from both UVP and sediment traps showed different patterns in different regions. On the western end of the BIOSOPE section the standing stock of particles in the superficial layer was high but the export between 150 and 250 m was low. Below this layer the flux values increased. High values of about 30% of the calculated UVP maximum superficial flux were observed below 900 m at the HNLC station. The South Pacific Gyre exported about 2 mg m−2 d−1. While off Chilean coast 95% of the superficial matter was remineralized or advected in the upper kilometer, 20% of the superficial flux was observed below 900 m near the Chilean coast. These results suggest that the export to deep waters is spatially heterogeneous and related to the different biotic and abiotic factors.
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Citation: Guidi, L., Gorsky, G., Claustre, H., Picheral, M., and Stemmann, L.: Contrasting distribution of aggregates >100 μm in the upper kilometre of the South-Eastern Pacific, Biogeosciences Discuss., 5, 871-901, doi:10.5194/bgd-5-871-2008, 2008. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
