Ubiquitous healthy diatoms in the deep sea confirm deep carbon injection by the biological pump
Type
ArticleAuthors
Agusti, Susana
González-Gordillo, J. I.
Vaqué, D.
Estrada, M.
Cerezo, M. I.
Salazar, G.
Gasol, J. M.
Duarte, Carlos M.

KAUST Department
Red Sea Research Center (RSRC)Date
2015-07-09Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/560370
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Show full item recordAbstract
The role of the ocean as a sink for CO2 is partially dependent on the downward transport of phytoplankton cells packaged within fast-sinking particles. However, whether such fast-sinking mechanisms deliver fresh organic carbon down to the deep bathypelagic sea and whether this mechanism is prevalent across the ocean requires confirmation. Here we report the ubiquitous presence of healthy photosynthetic cells, dominated by diatoms, down to 4,000 m in the deep dark ocean. Decay experiments with surface phytoplankton suggested that the large proportion (18%) of healthy photosynthetic cells observed, on average, in the dark ocean, requires transport times from a few days to a few weeks, corresponding to sinking rates (124–732 m d−1) comparable to those of fast-sinking aggregates and faecal pellets. These results confirm the expectation that fast-sinking mechanisms inject fresh organic carbon into the deep sea and that this is a prevalent process operating across the global oligotrophic ocean.Citation
Ubiquitous healthy diatoms in the deep sea confirm deep carbon injection by the biological pump 2015, 6:7608 Nature CommunicationsPublisher
Nature Publishing GroupJournal
Nature CommunicationsISSN
2041-1723PubMed ID
26158221Additional Links
http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/ncomms8608ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1038/ncomms8608
Scopus Count
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