Potential Export of Unattached Benthic Macroalgae to the Deep Sea Through Wind Driven Langmuir Circulation

Carbon export to the deep sea is conventionally attributed to the sinking of open ocean phytoplankton. Here, we report a Langmuir supercell event driven by high winds across the shallow Great Bahama Bank that organized benthic non-attached macroalgae, Colpomenia sp., into visible windrows on the sea...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Dierssen, H. M., Zimmerman, Richard C., Drake, Lisa A., Burdige, David J.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: ODU Digital Commons 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/oeas_fac_pubs/66
https://doi.org/10.1029/2008gl036188
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/context/oeas_fac_pubs/article/1072/viewcontent/Dierssen_2009_Potential_export_of.pdf
Description
Summary:Carbon export to the deep sea is conventionally attributed to the sinking of open ocean phytoplankton. Here, we report a Langmuir supercell event driven by high winds across the shallow Great Bahama Bank that organized benthic non-attached macroalgae, Colpomenia sp., into visible windrows on the seafloor. Ocean color satellite imagery obtained before and after the windrows revealed a 588 km2 patch that rapidly shifted from highly productive macroalgae to bare sand. We assess a number of possible fates for this macroalgae and contend that this event potentially transported negatively buoyant macroalgae to the deep Tongue of the Ocean in a pulsed export of > 7 x 1010 g of carbon. This is equivalent to the daily carbon flux of phytoplankton biomass in the pelagic tropical North Atlantic and 0.2-0.8% of daily carbon flux from the global ocean. Coastal banks and bays are highly productive ecosystems that may contribute substantially to carbon export to the deep sea. Citation: Dierssen, H. M., R. C. Zimmerman, L. A. Drake, and D. J. Burdige (2009), Potential export of unattached benthic macroalgae to the deep sea through wind-driven Langmuir circulation, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L04602, doi:10.1029/2008GL036188.