TY - JOUR
T1 - Deep water particle flux in the Canary Island region
T2 - Seasonal trends in relation to long-term satellite derived pigment data and lateral sources
AU - Neuer, Susanne
AU - Ratmeyer, Volker
AU - Davenport, Robert
AU - Fischer, Gerhard
AU - Wefer, Gerold
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements-We thank the captains and the crews of R.V. Meteor and Polarstern for their professional help in deploying and recovering the mooring arrays, and G. Ruhland, K. Dehning and U. Rosiak for technical assistance. We are indebted to V. Diekamp and K. Slickers for the laboratory analyses. G. Krause provided the Influx current meter data. The comments of F. Garcia-Pichel, V. Smetacek and two anonymous reviewers improved the manuscript. This research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Sonderforschungsbereich 261 at Bremen University, Contribution 153). S.N. was funded by the Bundesministerium fur Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie (FKZ03F0108D).
PY - 1997/8
Y1 - 1997/8
N2 - We present a 3 year record of deep water particle flux at the recently initiated ESTOC (European Station for Time-series in the Ocean, Canary Islands) located in the eastern subtropical North Atlantic gyre. Particle flux was highly seasonal, with flux maxima occurring in late winter early spring. A comparison with historic CZCS (Coastal Zone Colour Scanner) data shows that these flux maxima occurred about 1 month after maximum chlorophyll was observed in surface waters in a presumed primary source region 100 km x 100 km northeast of the trap location. The main components of the particles collected with the traps were mineral particles and carbonate, both correlating strongly with organic matter sedimentation. Mineral particles and sinking matter are indicative of the high aeolian input from the African desert regions. Comparing particle fluxes at 1 km and 3 km depth, we find that particle sedimentation increased substantially with depth. Yearly organic carbon sedimentation was 0.6 g m-2 at 1 km depth compared with 0.8 g m-2 at 3 km. We hypothesize that higher phytoplankton biomass observed further north could be a source of laterally advecting particles that interact with fast sinking particles originating from the primary source region. This hypothesis is also supported by the differences in size distribution of lithogenic matter found at the two trap depths.
AB - We present a 3 year record of deep water particle flux at the recently initiated ESTOC (European Station for Time-series in the Ocean, Canary Islands) located in the eastern subtropical North Atlantic gyre. Particle flux was highly seasonal, with flux maxima occurring in late winter early spring. A comparison with historic CZCS (Coastal Zone Colour Scanner) data shows that these flux maxima occurred about 1 month after maximum chlorophyll was observed in surface waters in a presumed primary source region 100 km x 100 km northeast of the trap location. The main components of the particles collected with the traps were mineral particles and carbonate, both correlating strongly with organic matter sedimentation. Mineral particles and sinking matter are indicative of the high aeolian input from the African desert regions. Comparing particle fluxes at 1 km and 3 km depth, we find that particle sedimentation increased substantially with depth. Yearly organic carbon sedimentation was 0.6 g m-2 at 1 km depth compared with 0.8 g m-2 at 3 km. We hypothesize that higher phytoplankton biomass observed further north could be a source of laterally advecting particles that interact with fast sinking particles originating from the primary source region. This hypothesis is also supported by the differences in size distribution of lithogenic matter found at the two trap depths.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0967-0637(97)00034-4
DO - 10.1016/S0967-0637(97)00034-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0030826813
SN - 0967-0637
VL - 44
SP - 1451
EP - 1466
JO - Deep-Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers
JF - Deep-Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers
IS - 8
ER -