The oceanic biological pump: rapid carbon transfer to depth at continental margins during winter

The oceanic biological pump is responsible for the important transfer of CO2-C as POC “Particulate Organic Carbon” to the deep sea. It plays a decisive role in the Earth’s carbon cycle and significant effort is spent to quantify its strength. In this study we used synchronized daily time-series data of surface chlorophyll-a concentrations from the NASA’s MODIS satellite in combination with hourly to daily observations from sea surface buoys and from an Internet Operated Vehicle (IOV) on the seafloor within Barkley Canyon (Northeast Pacific) to investigate the importance of winter processes in the export of fresh phytodetritus. The results indicate that phytoplankton pulses during winter can be as important in POC transfer to depth as the pulses associated with spring and summer blooms. Short winter phytoplankton pulses were observed to disappear from surface waters after low-pressure systems affected the area. Pulses of chlorophyll reached the IOV, at 870 m depth on the canyon seafloor,...

海洋生物泵负责将CO₂-C以颗粒有机碳（Particulate Organic Carbon，POC）的形式向深海进行重要传输。它在地球碳循环中发挥决定性作用，因此人们投入大量精力来量化其强度。本研究结合NASA的MODIS卫星提供的同步每日表层叶绿素a浓度时间序列数据，以及东北太平洋巴克利峡谷（Barkley Canyon）内海面浮标和海底互联网操作载具（Internet Operated Vehicle，IOV）的小时至每日观测数据，旨在探究冬季过程在新鲜浮游植物碎屑输出中的重要性。结果表明，冬季浮游植物脉冲在POC向深海传输中的重要性，可与春夏水华相关的脉冲相媲美。观测发现，低压系统影响该区域后，冬季短暂的浮游植物脉冲会从表层水体消失。叶绿素脉冲到达了峡谷海底870米深处的IOV，...