Organic carbon flux through the benthic community in the temperate abyssal Northeast Atlantic

• Main Author: Pfannkuche, Olaf
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 1992
• Subjects: ADEPD; ANT-IV/1a; Atlantic Data Base for Exchange Processes at the Deep Sea Floor; Biotrans; Giant box corer; GKG; M69; M69_KG1046; M69_KG1047; M69_KG1048; M69_KG1049; M69_KG1050; M69_KG1051; M69_KG1052; M69_KG1053; M69_MC10; Meteor (1964); MUC; MultiCorer; NOAMP III; North Atlantic Ocean; Polarstern; PS08_KG1088; PS08_KG1092; PS08_KG1094; PS08_KG1101; PS08_KG1103; PS08_KG1107; PS08_KG1110; PS08_KG1112; PS08_MC25; PS08_MC27; PS08_MC28; PS08_MC31; PS08_MC33; PS08_MC34; PS08_MC35; PS08_MC36; PS08_MC37; PS08_MC38; PS08_MC39; PS08 NOAMP; North Atlantic; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.692143; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.692143

In order to assess the carbon flux through the deep-sea benthic boundary layer, sediment community oxygen consumption (SCOC) was measured in different months and years at the BIOTRANS area in the abyssal northeastern Atlantic. SCOC varied seasonally with a maximum in July/August. Evidence is given for a direct coupling between a substantial sedimentation of phytodetritus and the seasonal increase in SCOC. Rapid colonization, growth and decomposition rates indicate that the deep-sea benthic microbial and protozoan biota can react quickly to substantial falls of particulate organic matter. They seem to be the most important groups to generate seasonal changes in deep-sea benthic carbon flux rates.