Marine snow morphology illuminates the evolution of phytoplankton blooms and determines their subsequent vertical export

• Published in: Nature Communications
• Main Authors: Trudnowska, Emilia, Lacour, Léo, Ardyna, Mathieu, Rogge, Andreas, Irisson, Jean Olivier, Waite, Anya, Babin, Marcel, Stemmann, Lars
• Other Authors: Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences (IO-PAN), Polska Akademia Nauk = Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), Takuvik Joint International Laboratory ULAVAL-CNRS, Université Laval Québec (ULaval)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Stanford University, Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche (LOV), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de la Mer de Villefranche (IMEV), Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Kiel University, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Dalhousie University Halifax
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Arctic; Phytoplankton
• Online Access: https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-03230967; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-03230967/document; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-03230967/file/s41467-021-22994-4.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-22994-4

International audience The organic carbon produced in the ocean's surface by phytoplankton is either passed through the food web or exported to the ocean interior as marine snow. The rate and efficiency of such vertical export strongly depend on the size, structure and shape of individual particles, but apart from size, other morphological properties are still not quantitatively monitored. With the growing number of in situ imaging technologies, there is now a great possibility to analyze the morphology of individual marine snow. Thus, automated methods for their classification are urgently needed. Consequently, here we present a simple, objective categorization method of marine snow into a few ecologically meaningful functional morphotypes using field data from successive phases of the Arctic phytoplankton bloom. The proposed approach is a promising tool for future studies aiming to integrate the diversity, composition and morphology of marine snow into our understanding of the biological carbon pump.