Carbon cycling and POC turnover in the mesopelagic zone of the ocean: Insights from a simple model

Anderson, Thomas R.; Tang, Kam W.

doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2010.02.024

Cited by 54 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 121 publications

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“…Scatter in the data resulted in an 8-fold range of predicted BGE values for the latter relationship (Robinson, 2008). BGE also varies with the availability of substrates for growth (Ló pez-Urrutia and Morá n, 2007) and with the cost of exoenzyme synthesis, the latter resulting in a difference in BGE for attached and free-living bacteria (Anderson and Tang, 2010). In the subtropical Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, utilization of refractory deep-ocean organic matter was linked to higher cellspecific extracellular enzymatic activity and respiration, lower cell-specific production and decreased prokaryotic growth yield than in surface waters (Baltar et al, 2009b;Tamburini et al, 2002Tamburini et al, , 2009b.…”

Section: Carbon Sinks 221 Bacterial Carbon Demandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the apparent imbalance between geochemical and biochemical indicators of meso- and bathypelagic biological activity: What the @$♯! is wrong with present calculations of carbon budgets?

Burd

Hansell

Steinberg³

et al. 2010

Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography

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a b s t r a c tMetabolic activity in the water column below the euphotic zone is ultimately fuelled by the vertical flux of organic material from the surface. Over time, the deep ocean is presumably at steady state, with sources and sinks balanced. But recently compiled global budgets and intensive local field studies suggest that estimates of metabolic activity in the dark ocean exceed the influx of organic substrates. This imbalance indicates either the existence of unaccounted sources of organic carbon or that metabolic activity in the dark ocean is being over-estimated. Budgets of organic carbon flux and metabolic activity in the dark ocean have uncertainties associated with environmental variability, measurement capabilities, conversion parameters, and processes that are not well sampled. We present these issues and quantify associated uncertainties where possible, using a Monte Carlo analysis of a published data set to determine the probability that the imbalance can be explained purely by uncertainties in measurements and conversion factors. A sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the bacterial growth efficiencies and assumed cell carbon contents have the greatest effects on the magnitude of the carbon imbalance. Two poorly quantified sources, lateral advection of particles and a population of slowly settling particles, are discussed as providing a means of closing regional carbon budgets. Finally, we make recommendations concerning future research directions to reduce important uncertainties and allow a better determination of the magnitude and causes of the unbalanced carbon budgets.

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Section: Carbon Sinks 221 Bacterial Carbon Demandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the apparent imbalance between geochemical and biochemical indicators of meso- and bathypelagic biological activity: What the @$♯! is wrong with present calculations of carbon budgets?

Burd

Hansell

Steinberg³

et al. 2010

Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography

Self Cite

283

262

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“…in terms of substrate affinity and growth efficiency, is important for determining their relative contributions to the turnover of organic carbon and the carbon budget of the mesopelagic zone (Anderson and Tang, 2010). Improved understanding of the degradation, fragmentation and repackaging of sinking aggregates will allow the biological pump to be included in global models as more than simply an empirically-determined decline in POC concentration with depth (De La Rocha and Passow, 2007).…”

Section: Ecological Interactions With Particulate Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mesopelagic organisms modify this sinking flux by both repackaging organic carbon into faster-sinking particles such as fecal pellets (e.g., Wilson et al, 2008;Fig. 5) and fragmenting larger aggregates into smaller slower-sinking particles (De La Rocha and Passow, 2007;Anderson and Tang, 2010). The biotic processing or repackaging of POC is linked to the recycling of biominerals such as opal and calcium carbonate.…”

Section: Biological Pumpmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This respiration limits the extent of carbon sequestration from the atmosphere. Biogeochemical research has focused on understanding the observed pattern of particulate matter flux with depth (Martin et al, 1987;Buesseler et al, 2007), estimating the rates of microbial and zooplankton respiration (Dehairs et al, 1997;Arístegui et al, 2005;Steinberg et al, 2008a;Jacquet et al, 2008), and using models to describe the interactions between microbes, animals and material flux (Jackson and Burd, 2002;Stemmann et al, 2004a;Anderson and Tang, 2010). For the zoologist, the mesopelagic contains a diverse community of animals that contribute to the repackaging and reprocessing of sinking and suspended organic material and is also the region where many animals retreat during the day to avoid predation by efficient visual predators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mesopelagic zone ecology and biogeochemistry – a synthesis

Robinson¹,

Steinberg²,

Anderson³

et al. 2010

Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography

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“…), the active flux of dissolved and particulate organic material mediated by vertical migration of zooplankton, and the vertical transport of dissolved organic material by physical processes. Around 50 % of the photosynthetically produced particulate organic carbon (POC) is transformed through mechanisms including excretion, zooplankton grazing, viral lysis and the action of microbial ectohydrolases into dissolved organic carbon (DOC) (Anderson and Tang, 2010). The production rate and chemical composition of this dissolved organic matter (DOM) is influenced by the nutrient status and community composition of the microbial food web.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanisms of microbial carbon sequestration in the ocean – future research directions

Jiao

Robinson²,

Azam³

et al. 2014

Biogeosciences

198

101

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Abstract. This paper reviews progress on understanding biological carbon sequestration in the ocean with special reference to the microbial formation and transformation of recalcitrant dissolved organic carbon (RDOC), the microbial carbon pump (MCP). We propose that RDOC is a concept with a wide continuum of recalcitrance. Most RDOC compounds maintain their levels of recalcitrance only in a specific environmental context (RDOC t ). The ocean RDOC pool also contains compounds that may be inaccessible to microbes due to their extremely low concentration (RDOC c ). This differentiation allows us to appreciate the linkage between microbial source and RDOC composition on a range of temporal and spatial scales.Analyses of biomarkers and isotopic records show intensive MCP processes in the Proterozoic oceans when the MCP could have played a significant role in regulating climate. Understanding the dynamics of the MCP in conjunction with the better constrained biological pump (BP) over geological timescales could help to predict future climate trends. Integration of the MCP and the BP will require new research approaches and opportunities. Major goals include understanding the interactions between particulate organic carbon (POC) and RDOC that contribute to sequestration efficiency, and the concurrent determination of the chemical composition of organic carbon, microbial community composition and enzymatic activity. Molecular biomarkers and isotopic tracers should be employed to link water column processes Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. N. Jiao et al.: Mechanisms of microbial carbon sequestration in the oceanto sediment records, as well as to link present-day observations to paleo-evolution. Ecosystem models need to be developed based on empirical relationships derived from bioassay experiments and field investigations in order to predict the dynamics of carbon cycling along the stability continuum of POC and RDOC under potential global change scenarios. We propose that inorganic nutrient input to coastal waters may reduce the capacity for carbon sequestration as RDOC. The nutrient regime enabling maximum carbon storage from combined POC flux and RDOC formation should therefore be sought.

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Carbon cycling and POC turnover in the mesopelagic zone of the ocean: Insights from a simple model

Cited by 54 publications

References 121 publications

Assessing the apparent imbalance between geochemical and biochemical indicators of meso- and bathypelagic biological activity: What the @$♯! is wrong with present calculations of carbon budgets?

Assessing the apparent imbalance between geochemical and biochemical indicators of meso- and bathypelagic biological activity: What the @$♯! is wrong with present calculations of carbon budgets?

Mesopelagic zone ecology and biogeochemistry – a synthesis

Mechanisms of microbial carbon sequestration in the ocean – future research directions

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