The relative importance of phytoplankton aggregates and zooplankton fecal pellets to carbon export: insights from free-drifting sediment trap deployments in naturally iron-fertilised waters near the Kerguelen Plateau

Type Article
Date 2015-02-17
Language English
Author(s) Laurenceau-Cornec E.C.1, 2, Trull T.W.2, 3, Davies D.M.2, Bray S.G.2, Doran J.4, Planchon F.5, Carlotti F.6, Jouandet M.P.6, Cavagna A.J.7, Waite A.M.4, 8, Blain S.9, 10
Affiliation(s) 1 : CSIRO-UTAS Quantitative Marine Sciences PhD Program, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 129, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
2 : Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 80, Hobart TAS 7001, Australia
3 : Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Marine and Atmospheric Research, Castray Esplanade, Hobart TAS 7000, Australia
4 : UWA Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia (M470), 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA 6009, Australia
5 : Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Environnement Marin (LEMAR), Université de Brest, CNRS, IRD, UMR6539, IUEM, Technopôle Brest Iroise, Place Nicolas Copernic, 29280 Plouzané, France
6 : Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO), Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS-IRD, 13288 Marseille, CEDEX 09, France
7 : Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Analytical and Environmental Geochemistry Dept., Brussels, Belgium
8 : Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Building E-2155, Am Handelshafen 12, 27570 Bremerhaven, Germany
9 : Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, UMR 7621, Laboratoire d'Océanographie Microbienne, Observatoire Océanologique, 66650 Banyuls/mer, France
10 : CNRS, UMR 7621, Laboratoire d'Océanographie Microbienne, Observatoire Océanologique, 66650 Banyuls/mer, France
Source Biogeosciences (1726-4170) (European Geosciences Union (EGU)), 2015-02-17 , Vol. 12 , N. 4 , P. 1007-1027
DOI 10.5194/bg-12-1007-2015
WOS© Times Cited 93
Note Special issue KEOPS2: Kerguelen Ocean and Plateau Study 2
Abstract The first KErguelen Ocean and Plateau compared Study (KEOPS1), conducted in the naturally iron-fertilised Kerguelen bloom, demonstrated that fecal material was the main pathway for exporting carbon to the deep ocean during summer (January-February 2005), suggesting a limited role of direct export via phytodetrital aggregates. The KEOPS2 project reinvestigated this issue during the spring bloom initiation (October-November 2011), when zooplankton communities may exert limited grazing pressure, and further explored the link between carbon flux, export efficiency and dominant sinking particles depending upon surface plankton community structure. Sinking particles were collected in polyacrylamide gel-filled and standard free-drifting sediment traps (PPS3/3), deployed at six stations between 100 and 400 m, to examine flux composition, particle origin and their size distributions. Results revealed an important contribution of phytodetrital aggregates (49 +/- 10 and 45 +/- 22% of the total number and volume of particles respectively, all stations and depths averaged). This high contribution dropped when converted to carbon content (30 +/- 16% of total carbon, all stations and depths averaged), with cylindrical fecal pellets then representing the dominant fraction (56 +/- 19 %). At 100 and 200 m depth, iron-and biomass-enriched sites exhibited the highest carbon fluxes (maxima of 180 and 84 +/- 27 mg C m(-2) d(-1), based on gel and PPS3/3 trap collection respectively), especially where large fecal pellets dominated over phytodetrital aggregates. Below these depths, carbon fluxes decreased (48 +/- 21% decrease on average between 200 and 400 m), and mixed aggregates composed of phytodetritus and fecal matter dominated, suggesting an important role played by physical aggregation in deep carbon export. Export efficiencies determined from gels, PPS3/3 traps and Th-234 disequilibria (200m carbon flux/net primary productivity) were negatively correlated to net primary productivity with observed decreases from similar to 0.2 at low-iron sites to similar to 0.02 at high-iron sites. Varying phytoplankton communities and grazing pressure appear to explain this negative relationship. Our work emphasises the need to consider detailed plankton communities to accurately identify the controls on carbon export efficiency, which appear to include small spatio-temporal variations in ecosystem structure.
Full Text
File Pages Size Access
Publisher's official version 21 4 MB Open access
Discussion paper 51 1 MB Open access
Top of the page

How to cite 

Laurenceau-Cornec E.C., Trull T.W., Davies D.M., Bray S.G., Doran J., Planchon F., Carlotti F., Jouandet M.P., Cavagna A.J., Waite A.M., Blain S. (2015). The relative importance of phytoplankton aggregates and zooplankton fecal pellets to carbon export: insights from free-drifting sediment trap deployments in naturally iron-fertilised waters near the Kerguelen Plateau. Biogeosciences, 12(4), 1007-1027. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-1007-2015 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00255/36641/