On the proportion of ballast versus non-ballast associated carbon export in the surface ocean

The role of biominerals in driving carbon export from the surface ocean is unclear. We compiled surface particulate organic carbon (POC), and mineral ballast export fluxes from 55 different locations in the Atlantic and Southern Oceans. Substantial surface POC export accompanied by negligible minera...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Le Moigne, Frederic A. C., Sanders, Richard J., Villa-Alfageme, Maria, Martin, Adrian P., Pabortsava, Katsiaryna, Planquette, Helene, Morris, Paul J., Thomalla, Sandy J.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2012
Subjects:
SILICA
PACIFIC
NORTH
CROZET PLATEAU
SEA
PHAEOCYSTIS
ALUMINUM
PHYTOPLANKTON BLOOM
IRON
SOUTHERN-OCEAN
Pacific
Southern Ocean
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1983/60da7316-056d-44a0-abcf-18dc17e3357f
https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/60da7316-056d-44a0-abcf-18dc17e3357f
https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL052980
Description
Summary:The role of biominerals in driving carbon export from the surface ocean is unclear. We compiled surface particulate organic carbon (POC), and mineral ballast export fluxes from 55 different locations in the Atlantic and Southern Oceans. Substantial surface POC export accompanied by negligible mineral export was recorded implying that association with mineral phases is not a precondition for organic export to occur. The proportion of non-mineral associated sinking POC ranged from 0 to 80% and was highest in areas previously shown to be dominated by diatoms. This is consistent with previous estimates showing that transfer efficiency in such regions is low. However we propose that, rather than the low transfer efficiency arising from diatom blooms being inherently characterized by poorly packaged aggregates which are efficiently exported but which disintegrate readily in mid water, it is due to such environments having very high levels of unballasted organic C export. Citation: Le Moigne, F. A. C., R. J. Sanders, M. Villa-Alfageme, A. P. Martin, K. Pabortsava, H. Planquette, P. J. Morris, and S. J. Thomalla (2012), On the proportion of ballast versus non-ballast associated carbon export in the surface ocean, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L15610, doi:10.1029/2012GL052980.

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