Export and lateral advection of organic matter within the biological carbon pump ...

• Main Author: Swoboda, Steffen
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Universität Bremen 2022
• Subjects: marine carbon cycle; biological carbon pump; marine biogeochemistry; Marine snow; lateral transport; Marine snow ballasting; marine aggregates; Microfluidics; Cape Blanc; Fram Strait; Arctic Ocean; 500; Arctic; Phytoplankton; Zooplankton
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.26092/elib/2013; https://media.suub.uni-bremen.de/handle/elib/6575

The biological carbon pump (BCP) exports organic carbon from the surface to the deep ocean through which it drives the oceanic carbon storage of atmospheric CO2. The majority of this exported carbon is mediated by sinking marine particles, which are mostly formed by primary producers i.e. phytoplankton, and detrital material including dead zoo- and phytoplankton as well as fecal pellets. The efficiency at which these marine particles are exported is largely dependent on the interplay between their degradation and the duration the particles settle through the water column. Particle and aggregate degradation is largely driven by attached microbes and zooplankton grazing, which is most prominent in the upper few hundred meters of the water column. Settling velocities of particles or aggregates are largely determined by their density and thus composition. Therefore, fast settling aggregates or particles sink more rapidly through the upper water column, which increases the carbon export efficiency. The ...