Vertical particle flux data in the Beaufort Sea: 2002-2019

Downward fluxes of particles are produced in the oceans when particulate matter, either newly produced in the surface layer or transported from elsewhere, sinks passively to depth as a particle rain. These fluxes fulfill two roles in marine ecosystems: 1) to provide food to living organisms such as microbes, zooplankton, fish and benthic organisms; and 2) to withdraw carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere when particulate carbon reaching the seafloor is buried and sequestered within sediments for hundreds of years. In Arctic seas, decline of sea ice and increase of continental inputs (river runoff and coastal erosion) are likely to impose complex transformations to the marine food web and to the cycling of particulate matter. The characterization of the nature and magnitude of vertical particle fluxes over an annual cycle improves thus our knowledge of the: 1) spatial and seasonal variability of sediment transport; 2) timing and magnitude of biological production, predominantly from phytoplankton and zooplankton; 3) nature and quality of the material sinking in the pelagic system and available to the benthos. This knowledge is essential to our understanding of the biogeochemical cycling of organic and inorganic matter, especially under the present scenarios of climate change in the Arctic Ocean.