| Summary: | Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 46 (2019): 10484–10494, doi:10.1029/2019GL083719. Tropical cyclones (hurricanes) generate intense surface ocean cooling and vertical mixing resulting in nutrient upwelling into the photic zone and episodic phytoplankton blooms. However, their influence on the deep ocean remains unknown. Here we present evidence that hurricanes also impact the ocean's biological pump by enhancing export of labile organic material to the deep ocean. In October 2016, Category 3 Hurricane Nicole passed over the Bermuda Time Series site in the oligotrophic NW Atlantic Ocean. Following Nicole's passage, particulate fluxes of lipids diagnostic of fresh phytodetritus, zooplankton, and microbial biomass increased by 30–300% at 1,500 m depth and 30–800% at 3,200 m depth. Mesopelagic suspended particles following Nicole were also enriched in phytodetrital material and in zooplankton and bacteria lipids, indicating particle disaggregation and a deepwater ecosystem response. Predicted climate‐induced increases in hurricane frequency and/or intensity may significantly alter ocean biogeochemical cycles by increasing the strength of the biological pump. This work and the Oceanic Flux Program time series were supported by the National Science Foundation Chemical Oceanography Program Grant OCE 1536644. The Bermuda Atlantic Time Series and Hydrostation S time series were supported by NSF Grants OCE 1756105 and OCE 1633125, respectively. We acknowledge the contributions of BATS technicians with CTD and pigment analyses. We sincerely thank the officers and crew of R/V Atlantic Explorer (Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences) for their expert assistance on the cruises. The data used in this study are listed in the figures, tables, and references, and are also available in the NSF's Biological and Chemical Oceanography ...
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