Toward an improved understanding of the Southern Ocean's biological pump: phytoplankton group-specific contributions to nitrogen and carbon cycling across the Subantarctic Indian Ocean
Iron (and silicate) (co-)limitation of phytoplankton is considered a primary cause of the Southern Ocean's inefficient biological pump. However, the role of phytoplankton community structure and response to nutrient cycling remains poorly understood. In a mass balance sense, phytoplankton consu...
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ftunivcapetownir:oai:localhost:11427/33675 2023-05-15T13:46:02+02:00 Toward an improved understanding of the Southern Ocean's biological pump: phytoplankton group-specific contributions to nitrogen and carbon cycling across the Subantarctic Indian Ocean Forrer, Heather Fawcett, Sarah 2021_ application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33675 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/33675/1/thesis_sci_2021_forrer%20heather.pdf eng eng Faculty of Science Department of Oceanography http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33675 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/33675/1/thesis_sci_2021_forrer%20heather.pdf oceanography Master Thesis Masters MSc 2021 ftunivcapetownir 2022-09-13T05:56:17Z Iron (and silicate) (co-)limitation of phytoplankton is considered a primary cause of the Southern Ocean's inefficient biological pump. However, the role of phytoplankton community structure and response to nutrient cycling remains poorly understood. In a mass balance sense, phytoplankton consumption of new nitrogen (N; e.g., allochthonous nitrate) is proportional to net carbon (C) export, while growth fueled by recycled N (e.g., ammonium) yields no net C flux. The N isotope ratio (δ15N) of surface biomass has long been used as an integrative tracer of new versus regenerated uptake. This approach is rendered more accurate by coupling either fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS; of nano- and picophytoplankton; 0.4-20 μm) or microscopy (for microphytoplankton; >20 um) with groupspecific δ15N measurements. Samples were collected for the analysis of nutrients and nitrate-, FACS-, and microscopy-δ15N on a mid-summer transect of the Subantarctic Indian basin during the 2016/17 Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) cruise. The data show that all phytoplankton populations preferentially utilize nitrate (≥55%) across the Indian Sector of the Subantarctic, potentially driving higher C export potential than previously estimated. Indeed, near the Subantarctic islands, 72% of microand >80% of nano- and picophytoplankton growth is supported by nitrate. This is likely due to the partial alleviation of phytoplankton iron and silicate stress, largely as a result of bathymetric upwelling, which constitutes a manifestation of the island mass effect. C export potential is lower in the open ocean region away from the islands where iron stress has been shown to be higher; here, nitrate supports >55% of micro- and picophytoplankton and 7 to 79% of nanophytoplankton growth. In terms of relative abundance (RA), the open Subantarctic is dominated by picoeukaryotes (64%), although there exists a large disconnect between relative abundance and potential contribution to C export. The three largest surface-ocean ... Master Thesis Antarc* Antarctic University of Cape Town: OpenUCT Antarctic Indian |
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University of Cape Town: OpenUCT |
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language |
English |
topic |
oceanography |
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oceanography Forrer, Heather Toward an improved understanding of the Southern Ocean's biological pump: phytoplankton group-specific contributions to nitrogen and carbon cycling across the Subantarctic Indian Ocean |
topic_facet |
oceanography |
description |
Iron (and silicate) (co-)limitation of phytoplankton is considered a primary cause of the Southern Ocean's inefficient biological pump. However, the role of phytoplankton community structure and response to nutrient cycling remains poorly understood. In a mass balance sense, phytoplankton consumption of new nitrogen (N; e.g., allochthonous nitrate) is proportional to net carbon (C) export, while growth fueled by recycled N (e.g., ammonium) yields no net C flux. The N isotope ratio (δ15N) of surface biomass has long been used as an integrative tracer of new versus regenerated uptake. This approach is rendered more accurate by coupling either fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS; of nano- and picophytoplankton; 0.4-20 μm) or microscopy (for microphytoplankton; >20 um) with groupspecific δ15N measurements. Samples were collected for the analysis of nutrients and nitrate-, FACS-, and microscopy-δ15N on a mid-summer transect of the Subantarctic Indian basin during the 2016/17 Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) cruise. The data show that all phytoplankton populations preferentially utilize nitrate (≥55%) across the Indian Sector of the Subantarctic, potentially driving higher C export potential than previously estimated. Indeed, near the Subantarctic islands, 72% of microand >80% of nano- and picophytoplankton growth is supported by nitrate. This is likely due to the partial alleviation of phytoplankton iron and silicate stress, largely as a result of bathymetric upwelling, which constitutes a manifestation of the island mass effect. C export potential is lower in the open ocean region away from the islands where iron stress has been shown to be higher; here, nitrate supports >55% of micro- and picophytoplankton and 7 to 79% of nanophytoplankton growth. In terms of relative abundance (RA), the open Subantarctic is dominated by picoeukaryotes (64%), although there exists a large disconnect between relative abundance and potential contribution to C export. The three largest surface-ocean ... |
author2 |
Fawcett, Sarah |
format |
Master Thesis |
author |
Forrer, Heather |
author_facet |
Forrer, Heather |
author_sort |
Forrer, Heather |
title |
Toward an improved understanding of the Southern Ocean's biological pump: phytoplankton group-specific contributions to nitrogen and carbon cycling across the Subantarctic Indian Ocean |
title_short |
Toward an improved understanding of the Southern Ocean's biological pump: phytoplankton group-specific contributions to nitrogen and carbon cycling across the Subantarctic Indian Ocean |
title_full |
Toward an improved understanding of the Southern Ocean's biological pump: phytoplankton group-specific contributions to nitrogen and carbon cycling across the Subantarctic Indian Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Toward an improved understanding of the Southern Ocean's biological pump: phytoplankton group-specific contributions to nitrogen and carbon cycling across the Subantarctic Indian Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Toward an improved understanding of the Southern Ocean's biological pump: phytoplankton group-specific contributions to nitrogen and carbon cycling across the Subantarctic Indian Ocean |
title_sort |
toward an improved understanding of the southern ocean's biological pump: phytoplankton group-specific contributions to nitrogen and carbon cycling across the subantarctic indian ocean |
publisher |
Faculty of Science |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33675 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/33675/1/thesis_sci_2021_forrer%20heather.pdf |
geographic |
Antarctic Indian |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Indian |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33675 https://open.uct.ac.za/bitstream/11427/33675/1/thesis_sci_2021_forrer%20heather.pdf |
_version_ |
1766235328420511744 |