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

• Main Author: Forrer, Heather
• Other Authors: Fawcett, Sarah
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Oceanography 2021
• Subjects: oceanography; Antarctic; Indian; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/33675

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 ...