Abstract. Particulate organic carbon (POC) flux estimated from POC concentration observations from sediment traps and 234 Th are compiled across the global ocean. The compilation includes six time series locations: CARI-ACO, K2, OSP, BATS, OFP, and HOT. Efficiency of the biological pump of carbon to the deep ocean depends largely on biologically mediated export of carbon from the surface ocean and its remineralization with depth; thus biologically related parameters able to be estimated from satellite observations were merged at the POC observation sites. Satellite parameters include net primary production, percent microplankton, sea surface temperature, photosynthetically active radiation, diffuse attenuation coefficient at 490 nm, euphotic zone depth, and climatological mixed layer depth. Of the observations across the globe, 85 % are concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere with 44 % of the data record overlapping the satellite record. Time series sites accounted for 36 % of the data, while 71 % of the data are measured at ≥ 500 m with the most common deployment depths between 1000 and 1500 m. This data set is valuable for investigations of CO 2 drawdown, carbon export, remineralization, and sequestration. The compiled data can be freely accessed at

Efficiency of the biological pump of carbon to the deep ocean depends largely on biologically mediated export of carbon from the surface ocean and its remineralization with depth. Global satellite studies have primarily focused on chlorophyll concentration and net primary production (NPP) to understand the role of phytoplankton in these processes. Recent satellite retrievals of phytoplankton composition now allow for the size of phytoplankton cells to be considered. Here we improve understanding of phytoplankton size structure impacts on particle export, remineralization, and transfer. A global compilation of particulate organic carbon (POC) flux estimated from sediment traps and 234Th are utilized. Annual climatologies of NPP, percent microplankton, and POC flux at four time series locations and within biogeochemical provinces are constructed. Parameters that characterize POC flux versus depth (export flux ratio, labile fraction, and remineralization length scale) are fit for time series locations, biogeochemical provinces, and times of the year dominated by small and large phytoplankton cells where phytoplankton cell size show enough dynamic range over the annual cycle. Considering all data together, our findings support the idea of high export flux but low transfer efficiency in productive regions and vice versa for oligotrophic regions. However, when parsing by dominant size class, we find periods dominated by small cells to have both greater export flux efficiency and lower transfer efficiency than periods when large cells comprise a greater proportion of the phytoplankton community.

There is a growing use of remote sensing observations for detecting and quantifying freshwater cyanobacteria populations, yet the inherent optical properties of these communities in natural settings, fundamental to bio-optical algorithms, are not well known. Toward bridging this knowledge gap, we measured a full complement of optical properties in western Lake Erie during cyanobacteria blooms in the summers of 2013 and 2014. Our measurements focus attention on the optical uniqueness of cyanobacteria blooms, which have consequences for remote sensing and bio-optical modeling. We found the cyanobacteria blooms in the western basin during our field work were dominated by Microcystis, while the waters in the adjacent central basin were dominated by Planktothrix. Chlorophyll concentrations ranged from 1 to over 135 µg/L across the study area with the highest concentrations associated with Microcystis in the western basin. We observed large, amorphous colonial Microcystis structures in the bloom area characterized by high phytoplankton absorption and high scattering coefficients with a mean particle backscatter ratio at 443 nm > 0.03, which is higher than other plankton types and more comparable to suspended inorganic sediments. While our samples contained mixtures of both, our analysis suggests high contributions to the measured scatter and backscatter coefficients from cyanobacteria. Our measurements provide new insights into the optical properties of cyanobacteria blooms, and indicate that current semi-analytic models are likely to have problems resolving a closed solution in these types of waters as many of our observations are beyond the range of existing model components. We believe that different algorithm or model approaches are needed for these conditions, specifically for phytoplankton absorption and particle backscatter components. From a remote sensing perspective, this presents a challenge not only in terms of a need for new algorithms, but also for determining when to apply the best Moore et al. Lake Erie IOPs algorithm for a given situation. These results are new in the sense that they represent a complete description of the optical properties of freshwater cyanobacteria blooms, and are likely to be representative of bloom conditions for other systems containing Microcystis cells and colonies.