Behrenfeld Michael J.

No Thumbnail Available
Last Name
Behrenfeld
First Name
Michael J.
ORCID

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 17 of 17
  • Article
    Reply to a comment by Stephen M. Chiswell on: “Annual cycles of ecological disturbance and recovery underlying the subarctic Atlantic spring plankton bloom” by M. J. Behrenfeld et al. (2013)
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2013-12-12) Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Lima, Ivan D. ; Boss, Emmanuel S. ; Siegel, David A.
  • Preprint
    Skill metrics for confronting global upper ocean ecosystem-biogeochemistry models against field and remote sensing data
    ( 2008-03-04) Doney, Scott C. ; Lima, Ivan D. ; Moore, J. Keith ; Lindsay, Keith ; Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Westberry, Toby K. ; Mahowald, Natalie M. ; Glover, David M. ; Takahashi, Taro
    We present a generalized framework for assessing the skill of global upper ocean ecosystem-biogeochemical models against in-situ field data and satellite observations. We illustrate the approach utilizing a multi-decade (1979-2004) hindcast experiment conducted with the Community Climate System Model (CCSM-3) ocean carbon model. The CCSM-3 ocean carbon model incorporates a multi-nutrient, multi-phytoplankton functional group ecosystem module coupled with a carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, silicon, and iron biogeochemistry module embedded in a global, threedimensional ocean general circulation model. The model is forced with physical climate forcing from atmospheric reanalysis and satellite data products and time-varying atmospheric dust deposition. Data-based skill metrics are used to evaluate the simulated time-mean spatial patterns, seasonal cycle amplitude and phase, and subannual to interannual variability. Evaluation data include: sea surface temperature and mixed layer depth; satellite derived surface ocean chlorophyll, primary productivity, phytoplankton growth rate and carbon biomass; large-scale climatologies of surface nutrients, pCO2, and air-sea CO2 and O2 flux; and time-series data from the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). Where the data is sufficient, we construct quantitative skill metrics using: model-data residuals, time-space correlation, root mean square error, and Taylor diagrams.
  • Article
    Satellite-detected fluorescence reveals global physiology of ocean phytoplankton
    (Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2009-05-08) Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Westberry, Toby K. ; Boss, Emmanuel S. ; O'Malley, Robert T. ; Siegel, David A. ; Wiggert, Jerry D. ; Franz, Bryan A. ; McClain, Charles R. ; Feldman, G. C. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Moore, J. Keith ; Dall'Olmo, Giorgio ; Milligan, A. J. ; Lima, Ivan D. ; Mahowald, Natalie M.
    Phytoplankton photosynthesis links global ocean biology and climate-driven fluctuations in the physical environment. These interactions are largely expressed through changes in phytoplankton physiology, but physiological status has proven extremely challenging to characterize globally. Phytoplankton fluorescence does provide a rich source of physiological information long exploited in laboratory and field studies, and is now observed from space. Here we evaluate the physiological underpinnings of global variations in satellite-based phytoplankton chlorophyll fluorescence. The three dominant factors influencing fluorescence distributions are chlorophyll concentration, pigment packaging effects on light absorption, and light-dependent energy-quenching processes. After accounting for these three factors, resultant global distributions of quenching-corrected fluorescence quantum yields reveal a striking consistency with anticipated patterns of iron availability. High fluorescence quantum yields are typically found in low iron waters, while low quantum yields dominate regions where other environmental factors are most limiting to phytoplankton growth. Specific properties of photosynthetic membranes are discussed that provide a mechanistic view linking iron stress to satellite-detected fluorescence. Our results present satellite-based fluorescence as a valuable tool for evaluating nutrient stress predictions in ocean ecosystem models and give the first synoptic observational evidence that iron plays an important role in seasonal phytoplankton dynamics of the Indian Ocean. Satellite fluorescence may also provide a path for monitoring climate-phytoplankton physiology interactions and improving descriptions of phytoplankton light use efficiencies in ocean productivity models.
  • Article
    Challenges of modeling depth-integrated marine primary productivity over multiple decades : a case study at BATS and HOT
    (American Geophysical Union, 2010-09-15) Saba, Vincent S. ; Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M. ; Carr, Mary-Elena ; Antoine, David ; Armstrong, Robert A. ; Asanuma, Ichio ; Aumont, Olivier ; Bates, Nicholas R. ; Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Bennington, Val ; Bopp, Laurent ; Bruggeman, Jorn ; Buitenhuis, Erik T. ; Church, Matthew J. ; Ciotti, Aurea M. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Dowell, Mark ; Dunne, John P. ; Dutkiewicz, Stephanie ; Gregg, Watson ; Hoepffner, Nicolas ; Hyde, Kimberly J. W. ; Ishizaka, Joji ; Kameda, Takahiko ; Karl, David M. ; Lima, Ivan D. ; Lomas, Michael W. ; Marra, John F. ; McKinley, Galen A. ; Melin, Frederic ; Moore, J. Keith ; Morel, Andre ; O'Reilly, John ; Salihoglu, Baris ; Scardi, Michele ; Smyth, Tim J. ; Tang, Shilin ; Tjiputra, Jerry ; Uitz, Julia ; Vichi, Marcello ; Waters, Kirk ; Westberry, Toby K. ; Yool, Andrew
    The performance of 36 models (22 ocean color models and 14 biogeochemical ocean circulation models (BOGCMs)) that estimate depth-integrated marine net primary productivity (NPP) was assessed by comparing their output to in situ 14C data at the Bermuda Atlantic Time series Study (BATS) and the Hawaii Ocean Time series (HOT) over nearly two decades. Specifically, skill was assessed based on the models' ability to estimate the observed mean, variability, and trends of NPP. At both sites, more than 90% of the models underestimated mean NPP, with the average bias of the BOGCMs being nearly twice that of the ocean color models. However, the difference in overall skill between the best BOGCM and the best ocean color model at each site was not significant. Between 1989 and 2007, in situ NPP at BATS and HOT increased by an average of nearly 2% per year and was positively correlated to the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation index. The majority of ocean color models produced in situ NPP trends that were closer to the observed trends when chlorophyll-a was derived from high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), rather than fluorometric or SeaWiFS data. However, this was a function of time such that average trend magnitude was more accurately estimated over longer time periods. Among BOGCMs, only two individual models successfully produced an increasing NPP trend (one model at each site). We caution against the use of models to assess multiannual changes in NPP over short time periods. Ocean color model estimates of NPP trends could improve if more high quality HPLC chlorophyll-a time series were available.
  • Article
    Regional variations in the influence of mesoscale eddies on near-surface chlorophyll
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2014-12-01) Gaube, Peter ; McGillicuddy, Dennis J. ; Chelton, Dudley B. ; Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Strutton, Peter G.
    Eddies can influence biogeochemical cycles through a variety of mechanisms, including the excitation of vertical velocities and the horizontal advection of nutrients and ecosystems, both around the eddy periphery by rotational currents and by the trapping of fluid and subsequent transport by the eddy. In this study, we present an analysis of the influence of mesoscale ocean eddies on near-surface chlorophyll (CHL) estimated from satellite measurements of ocean color. The influences of horizontal advection, trapping, and upwelling/downwelling on CHL are analyzed in an eddy-centric frame of reference by collocating satellite observations to eddy interiors, as defined by their sea surface height signatures. The influence of mesoscale eddies on CHL varies regionally. In most boundary current regions, cyclonic eddies exhibit positive CHL anomalies and anticyclonic eddies contain negative CHL anomalies. In the interior of the South Indian Ocean, however, the opposite occurs. The various mechanisms by which eddies can influence phytoplankton communities are summarized and regions where the observed CHL response to eddies is consistent with one or more of the mechanisms are discussed. This study does not attempt to link the observed regional variability definitively to any particular mechanism but provides a global overview of how eddies influence CHL anomalies.
  • Preprint
    Assessing the uncertainties of model estimates of primary productivity in the tropical Pacific Ocean
    ( 2008-03) Friedrichs, Marjorie A. M. ; Carr, Mary-Elena ; Barber, Richard T. ; Scardi, Michele ; Antoine, David ; Armstrong, Robert A. ; Asanuma, Ichio ; Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Buitenhuis, Erik T. ; Chai, Fei ; Christian, James R. ; Ciotti, Aurea M. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Dowell, Mark ; Dunne, John P. ; Gentili, Bernard ; Gregg, Watson ; Hoepffner, Nicolas ; Ishizaka, Joji ; Kameda, Takahiko ; Lima, Ivan D. ; Marra, John F. ; Melin, Frederic ; Moore, J. Keith ; Morel, Andre ; O'Malley, Robert T. ; O'Reilly, Jay ; Saba, Vincent S. ; Schmeltz, Marjorie ; Smyth, Tim J. ; Tjiputra, Jerry ; Waters, Kirk ; Westberry, Toby K. ; Winguth, Arne
    Depth-integrated primary productivity (PP) estimates obtained from satellite ocean color based models (SatPPMs) and those generated from biogeochemical ocean general circulation models (BOGCMs) represent a key resource for biogeochemical and ecological studies at global as well as regional scales. Calibration and validation of these PP models are not straightforward, however, and comparative studies show large differences between model estimates. The goal of this paper is to compare PP estimates obtained from 30 different models (21 SatPPMs and 9 BOGCMs) to a tropical Pacific PP database consisting of ~1000 14C measurements spanning more than a decade (1983- 1996). Primary findings include: skill varied significantly between models, but performance was not a function of model complexity or type (i.e. SatPPM vs. BOGCM); nearly all models underestimated the observed variance of PP, specifically yielding too few low PP (< 0.2 gC m-2d-2) values; more than half of the total root-mean-squared model-data differences associated with the satellite-based PP models might be accounted for by uncertainties in the input variables and/or the PP data; and the tropical Pacific database captures a broad scale shift from low biomass-normalized productivity in the 1980s to higher biomass-normalized productivity in the 1990s, which was not successfully captured by any of the models. This latter result suggests that interdecadal and global changes will be a significant challenge for both SatPPMs and BOGCMs. Finally, average root-mean-squared differences between in situ PP data on the equator at 140°W and PP estimates from the satellite-based productivity models were 58% lower than analogous values computed in a previous PP model comparison six years ago. The success of these types of comparison exercises is illustrated by the continual modification and improvement of the participating models and the resulting increase in model skill.
  • Article
    Climate-induced interannual variability of marine primary and export production in three global coupled climate carbon cycle models
    (Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union, 2008-04-23) Schneider, B. ; Bopp, Laurent ; Gehlen, M. ; Segschneider, J. ; Frolicher, T. L. ; Cadule, P. ; Friedlingstein, Pierre ; Doney, Scott C. ; Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Joos, Fortunat
    Fully coupled climate carbon cycle models are sophisticated tools that are used to predict future climate change and its impact on the land and ocean carbon cycles. These models should be able to adequately represent natural variability, requiring model validation by observations. The present study focuses on the ocean carbon cycle component, in particular the spatial and temporal variability in net primary productivity (PP) and export production (EP) of particulate organic carbon (POC). Results from three coupled climate carbon cycle models (IPSL, MPIM, NCAR) are compared with observation-based estimates derived from satellite measurements of ocean colour and results from inverse modelling (data assimilation). Satellite observations of ocean colour have shown that temporal variability of PP on the global scale is largely dominated by the permanently stratified, low-latitude ocean (Behrenfeld et al., 2006) with stronger stratification (higher sea surface temperature; SST) being associated with negative PP anomalies. Results from all three coupled models confirm the role of the low-latitude, permanently stratified ocean for anomalies in globally integrated PP, but only one model (IPSL) also reproduces the inverse relationship between stratification (SST) and PP. An adequate representation of iron and macronutrient co-limitation of phytoplankton growth in the tropical ocean has shown to be the crucial mechanism determining the capability of the models to reproduce observed interactions between climate and PP.
  • Article
    Global assessment of ocean carbon export by combining satellite observations and food-web models
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2014-03-10) Siegel, David A. ; Buesseler, Ken O. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Sailley, Sevrine F. ; Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Boyd, Philip W.
    The export of organic carbon from the surface ocean by sinking particles is an important, yet highly uncertain, component of the global carbon cycle. Here we introduce a mechanistic assessment of the global ocean carbon export using satellite observations, including determinations of net primary production and the slope of the particle size spectrum, to drive a food-web model that estimates the production of sinking zooplankton feces and algal aggregates comprising the sinking particle flux at the base of the euphotic zone. The synthesis of observations and models reveals fundamentally different and ecologically consistent regional-scale patterns in export and export efficiency not found in previous global carbon export assessments. The model reproduces regional-scale particle export field observations and predicts a climatological mean global carbon export from the euphotic zone of ~6 Pg C yr−1. Global export estimates show small variation (typically < 10%) to factor of 2 changes in model parameter values. The model is also robust to the choices of the satellite data products used and enables interannual changes to be quantified. The present synthesis of observations and models provides a path for quantifying the ocean's biological pump.
  • Article
    Regional to global assessments of phytoplankton dynamics from the SeaWiFS mission
    (Elsevier, 2013-04-20) Siegel, David A. ; Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Maritorena, S. ; McClain, Charles R. ; Antoine, David ; Bailey, S. W. ; Bontempi, P. S. ; Boss, Emmanuel S. ; Dierssen, Heidi M. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Eplee, R. E. ; Evans, R. H. ; Feldman, G. C. ; Fields, Erik ; Franz, Bryan A. ; Kuring, N. A. ; Mengelt, C. ; Nelson, Norman B. ; Patt, F. S. ; Robinson, W. D. ; Sarmiento, Jorge L. ; Swan, C. M. ; Werdell, P. J. ; Westberry, Toby K. ; Wilding, J. G. ; Yoder, James A.
    Photosynthetic production of organic matter by microscopic oceanic phytoplankton fuels ocean ecosystems and contributes roughly half of the Earth's net primary production. For 13 years, the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) mission provided the first consistent, synoptic observations of global ocean ecosystems. Changes in the surface chlorophyll concentration, the primary biological property retrieved from SeaWiFS, have traditionally been used as a metric for phytoplankton abundance and its distribution largely reflects patterns in vertical nutrient transport. On regional to global scales, chlorophyll concentrations covary with sea surface temperature (SST) because SST changes reflect light and nutrient conditions. However, the ocean may be too complex to be well characterized using a single index such as the chlorophyll concentration. A semi-analytical bio-optical algorithm is used to help interpret regional to global SeaWiFS chlorophyll observations from using three independent, well-validated ocean color data products; the chlorophyll a concentration, absorption by CDM and particulate backscattering. First, we show that observed long-term, global-scale trends in standard chlorophyll retrievals are likely compromised by coincident changes in CDM. Second, we partition the chlorophyll signal into a component due to phytoplankton biomass changes and a component caused by physiological adjustments in intracellular chlorophyll concentrations to changes in mixed layer light levels. We show that biomass changes dominate chlorophyll signals for the high latitude seas and where persistent vertical upwelling is known to occur, while physiological processes dominate chlorophyll variability over much of the tropical and subtropical oceans. The SeaWiFS data set demonstrates complexity in the interpretation of changes in regional to global phytoplankton distributions and illustrates limitations for the assessment of phytoplankton dynamics using chlorophyll retrievals alone.
  • Article
    Prediction of the export and fate of global ocean net primary production : the EXPORTS Science Plan
    (Frontiers Media, 2016-03-08) Siegel, David A. ; Buesseler, Ken O. ; Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Benitez-Nelson, Claudia R. ; Boss, Emmanuel S. ; Brzezinski, Mark A. ; Burd, Adrian B. ; Carlson, Craig A. ; D'Asaro, Eric A. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Perry, Mary J. ; Stanley, Rachel H. R. ; Steinberg, Deborah K.
    Ocean ecosystems play a critical role in the Earth's carbon cycle and the quantification of their impacts for both present conditions and for predictions into the future remains one of the greatest challenges in oceanography. The goal of the EXport Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) Science Plan is to develop a predictive understanding of the export and fate of global ocean net primary production (NPP) and its implications for present and future climates. The achievement of this goal requires a quantification of the mechanisms that control the export of carbon from the euphotic zone as well as its fate in the underlying “twilight zone” where some fraction of exported carbon will be sequestered in the ocean's interior on time scales of months to millennia. Here we present a measurement/synthesis/modeling framework aimed at quantifying the fates of upper ocean NPP and its impacts on the global carbon cycle based upon the EXPORTS Science Plan. The proposed approach will diagnose relationships among the ecological, biogeochemical, and physical oceanographic processes that control carbon cycling across a range of ecosystem and carbon cycling states leading to advances in satellite diagnostic and numerical prognostic models. To collect these data, a combination of ship and robotic field sampling, satellite remote sensing, and numerical modeling is proposed which enables the sampling of the many pathways of NPP export and fates. This coordinated, process-oriented approach has the potential to foster new insights on ocean carbon cycling that maximizes its societal relevance through the achievement of research goals of many international research agencies and will be a key step toward our understanding of the Earth as an integrated system.
  • Article
    Lagrangian and Eulerian time and length scales of mesoscale ocean chlorophyll from Bio-Argo floats and satellites
    (European Geosciences Union, 2022-12-21) McKee, Darren C ; Doney, Scott C ; Della Penna, Alice ; Boss, Emmanuel S ; Gaube, Peter ; Behrenfeld, Michael J ; Glover, David M
    Phytoplankton form the base of marine food webs and play an important role in carbon cycling, making it important to quantify rates of biomass accumulation and loss. As phytoplankton drift with ocean currents, rates should be evaluated in a Lagrangian as opposed to an Eulerian framework. In this study, we quantify the Lagrangian (from Bio-Argo floats and surface drifters with satellite ocean colour) and Eulerian (from satellite ocean colour and altimetry) statistics of mesoscale chlorophyll and velocity by computing decorrelation time and length scales and relate the frames by scaling the material derivative of chlorophyll. Because floats profile vertically and are not perfect Lagrangian observers, we quantify the mean distance between float and surface geostrophic trajectories over the time spanned by three consecutive profiles (quasi-planktonic index, QPI) to assess how their sampling is a function of their deviations from surface motion. Lagrangian and Eulerian statistics of chlorophyll are sensitive to the filtering used to compute anomalies. Chlorophyll anomalies about a 31 d time filter reveal an approximate equivalence of Lagrangian and Eulerian tendencies, suggesting they are driven by ocean colour pixel-scale processes and sources or sinks. On the other hand, chlorophyll anomalies about a seasonal cycle have Eulerian scales similar to those of velocity, suggesting mesoscale stirring helps set distributions of biological properties, and ratios of Lagrangian to Eulerian timescales depend on the magnitude of velocity fluctuations relative to an evolution speed of the chlorophyll fields in a manner similar to earlier theoretical results for velocity scales. The results suggest that stirring by eddies largely sets Lagrangian time and length scales of chlorophyll anomalies at the mesoscale.
  • Article
    Seasonal mixed layer depth shapes phytoplankton physiology, viral production, and accumulation in the North Atlantic
    (Nature Research, 2021-11-17) Diaz, Ben P. ; Knowles, Benjamin ; Johns, Christopher T. ; Laber, Christien P. ; Bondoc, Karen Grace V. ; Haramaty, Liti ; Natale, Frank ; Harvey, Elizabeth L. ; Kramer, Sasha J. ; Bolaños, Luis M. ; Lowenstein, Daniel P. ; Fredricks, Helen F. ; Graff, Jason R. ; Westberry, Toby K. ; Mojica, Kristina D. A. ; Haëntjens, Nils ; Baetge, Nicholas ; Gaube, Peter ; Boss, Emmanuel S. ; Carlson, Craig A. ; Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Van Mooy, Benjamin A. S. ; Bidle, Kay D.
    Seasonal shifts in phytoplankton accumulation and loss largely follow changes in mixed layer depth, but the impact of mixed layer depth on cell physiology remains unexplored. Here, we investigate the physiological state of phytoplankton populations associated with distinct bloom phases and mixing regimes in the North Atlantic. Stratification and deep mixing alter community physiology and viral production, effectively shaping accumulation rates. Communities in relatively deep, early-spring mixed layers are characterized by low levels of stress and high accumulation rates, while those in the recently shallowed mixed layers in late-spring have high levels of oxidative stress. Prolonged stratification into early autumn manifests in negative accumulation rates, along with pronounced signatures of compromised membranes, death-related protease activity, virus production, nutrient drawdown, and lipid markers indicative of nutrient stress. Positive accumulation renews during mixed layer deepening with transition into winter, concomitant with enhanced nutrient supply and lessened viral pressure.
  • Article
    Annual cycles of ecological disturbance and recovery underlying the subarctic Atlantic spring plankton bloom
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2013-06-20) Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Doney, Scott C. ; Lima, Ivan D. ; Boss, Emmanuel S. ; Siegel, David A.
    Satellite measurements allow global assessments of phytoplankton concentrations and, from observed temporal changes in biomass, direct access to net biomass accumulation rates (r). For the subarctic Atlantic basin, analysis of annual cycles in r reveals that initiation of the annual blooming phase does not occur in spring after stratification surpasses a critical threshold but rather occurs in early winter when growth conditions for phytoplankton are deteriorating. This finding has been confirmed with in situ profiling float data. The objective of the current study was to test whether satellite-based annual cycles in r are reproduced by the Biogeochemical Element Cycling–Community Climate System Model and, if so, to use the additional ecosystem properties resolved by the model to better understand factors controlling phytoplankton blooms. We find that the model gives a similar early onset time for the blooming phase, that this initiation is largely due to the physical disruption of phytoplankton-grazer interactions during mixed layer deepening, and that parallel increases in phytoplankton-specific division and loss rates during spring maintain the subtle disruption in food web equilibrium that ultimately yields the spring bloom climax. The link between winter mixing and bloom dynamics is illustrated by contrasting annual plankton cycles between regions with deeper and shallower mixing. We show that maximum water column inventories of phytoplankton vary in proportion to maximum winter mixing depth, implying that future reductions in winter mixing may dampen plankton cycles in the subarctic Atlantic. We propose that ecosystem disturbance-recovery sequences are a unifying property of global ocean plankton blooms.
  • Article
    Satellite observations of chlorophyll, phytoplankton biomass, and Ekman pumping in nonlinear mesoscale eddies
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2013-12-02) Gaube, Peter ; Chelton, Dudley B. ; Strutton, Peter G. ; Behrenfeld, Michael J.
    Nonlinear mesoscale eddies can influence biogeochemical cycles in the upper ocean through vertical and horizontal advection of nutrients and marine organisms. The relative importance of these two processes depends on the polarity of an eddy (cyclones versus anticyclones) and the initial biological conditions of the fluid trapped in the core of the eddy at the time of formation. Eddies originating in the eastern South Indian Ocean are unique in that anticyclones, typically associated with downwelling, contain elevated levels of chlorophyll-a, enhanced primary production and phytoplankton communities generally associated with nutrient-replete environments. From analysis of 9 years of concurrent satellite measurements of sea surface height, chlorophyll, phytoplankton carbon, and surface stress, we present observations that suggest eddy-induced Ekman upwelling as a mechanism that is at least partly responsible for sustaining positive phytoplankton anomalies in anticyclones of the South Indian Ocean. The biological response to this eddy-induced Ekman upwelling is evident only during the Austral winter. During the Austral summer, the biological response to eddy-induced Ekman pumping occurs deep in the euphotic zone, beyond the reach of satellite observations of ocean color.
  • Working Paper
    EXPORTS Measurements and Protocols for the NE Pacific Campaign
    (NASA STI Program and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2021-02) Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Benitez-Nelson, Claudia R. ; Boss, Emmanuel S. ; Brzezinski, Mark A. ; Buck, Kristen N. ; Buesseler, Ken O. ; Burd, Adrian B. ; Carlson, Craig A. ; Cassar, Nicolas ; Cetinić, Ivona ; Close, Hilary G. ; Craig, Susanne E. ; D'Asaro, Eric A. ; Durkin, Colleen A. ; Estapa, Margaret L. ; Fassbender, Andrea ; Fox, James ; Freeman, Scott ; Gifford, Scott M. ; Gong, Weida ; Graff, Jason R. ; Gray, Deric ; Guidi, Lionel ; Halsey, Kim ; Hansell, Dennis A. ; Haëntjens, Nils ; Horner, Tristan J. ; Jenkins, Bethany D. ; Jones, Janice L. ; Karp-Boss, Lee ; Kramer, Sasha J. ; Lam, Phoebe J. ; Lee, Craig M. ; Lee, Jong-Mi ; Liu, Shuting ; Mannino, Antonio ; Maas, Amy E. ; Marchal, Olivier ; Marchetti, Adrian ; McDonnell, Andrew M. P. ; McNair, Heather ; Menden-Deuer, Susanne ; Morison, Francoise ; Nelson, Norman B. ; Nicholson, David P. ; Niebergall, Alexandria K. ; Omand, Melissa M. ; Passow, Uta ; Perry, Mary J. ; Popp, Brian N. ; Proctor, Chris ; Rafter, Patrick ; Roca-Martí, Montserrat ; Roesler, Collin S. ; Rubin, Edwina ; Rynearson, Tatiana A. ; Santoro, Alyson E. ; Siegel, David A. ; Sosik, Heidi M. ; Soto Ramos, Inia ; Stamieszkin, Karen ; Steinberg, Deborah K. ; Stephens, Brandon M. ; Thompson, Andrew F. ; Van Mooy, Benjamin A. S. ; Zhang, Xiaodong
    EXport Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) is a large-scale NASA-led and NSF co-funded field campaign that will provide critical information for quantifying the export and fate of upper ocean net primary production (NPP) using satellite information and state of the art technology.
  • Article
    An operational overview of the EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) Northeast Pacific field deployment
    (University of California Press, 2021-07-07) Siegel, David A. ; Cetinić, Ivona ; Graff, Jason R. ; Lee, Craig M. ; Nelson, Norman B. ; Perry, Mary J. ; Soto Ramos, Inia ; Steinberg, Deborah K. ; Buesseler, Ken O. ; Hamme, Roberta C. ; Fassbender, Andrea ; Nicholson, David P. ; Omand, Melissa M. ; Robert, Marie ; Thompson, Andrew F. ; Amaral, Vinicius ; Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Benitez-Nelson, Claudia R. ; Bisson, Kelsey ; Boss, Emmanuel S. ; Boyd, Philip ; Brzezinski, Mark A. ; Buck, Kristen N. ; Burd, Adrian B. ; Burns, Shannon ; Caprara, Salvatore ; Carlson, Craig A. ; Cassar, Nicolas ; Close, Hilary G. ; D'Asaro, Eric A. ; Durkin, Colleen A. ; Erickson, Zachary K. ; Estapa, Margaret L. ; Fields, Erik ; Fox, James ; Freeman, Scott ; Gifford, Scott M. ; Gong, Weida ; Gray, Deric ; Guidi, Lionel ; Haëntjens, Nils ; Halsey, Kim ; Huot, Yannick ; Hansell, Dennis A. ; Jenkins, Bethany D. ; Karp-Boss, Lee ; Kramer, Sasha J. ; Lam, Phoebe J. ; Lee, Jong-Mi ; Maas, Amy E. ; Marchal, Olivier ; Marchetti, Adrian ; McDonnell, Andrew M. P. ; McNair, Heather ; Menden-Deuer, Susanne ; Morison, Francoise ; Niebergall, Alexandria K. ; Passow, Uta ; Popp, Brian N. ; Potvin, Geneviève ; Resplandy, Laure ; Roca-Martí, Montserrat ; Roesler, Collin S. ; Rynearson, Tatiana A. ; Traylor, Shawnee ; Santoro, Alyson E. ; Seraphin, Kanesa ; Sosik, Heidi M. ; Stamieszkin, Karen ; Stephens, Brandon M. ; Tang, Weiyi ; Van Mooy, Benjamin ; Xiong, Yuanheng ; Zhang, Xiaodong
    The goal of the EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) field campaign is to develop a predictive understanding of the export, fate, and carbon cycle impacts of global ocean net primary production. To accomplish this goal, observations of export flux pathways, plankton community composition, food web processes, and optical, physical, and biogeochemical (BGC) properties are needed over a range of ecosystem states. Here we introduce the first EXPORTS field deployment to Ocean Station Papa in the Northeast Pacific Ocean during summer of 2018, providing context for other papers in this special collection. The experiment was conducted with two ships: a Process Ship, focused on ecological rates, BGC fluxes, temporal changes in food web, and BGC and optical properties, that followed an instrumented Lagrangian float; and a Survey Ship that sampled BGC and optical properties in spatial patterns around the Process Ship. An array of autonomous underwater assets provided measurements over a range of spatial and temporal scales, and partnering programs and remote sensing observations provided additional observational context. The oceanographic setting was typical of late-summer conditions at Ocean Station Papa: a shallow mixed layer, strong vertical and weak horizontal gradients in hydrographic properties, sluggish sub-inertial currents, elevated macronutrient concentrations and low phytoplankton abundances. Although nutrient concentrations were consistent with previous observations, mixed layer chlorophyll was lower than typically observed, resulting in a deeper euphotic zone. Analyses of surface layer temperature and salinity found three distinct surface water types, allowing for diagnosis of whether observed changes were spatial or temporal. The 2018 EXPORTS field deployment is among the most comprehensive biological pump studies ever conducted. A second deployment to the North Atlantic Ocean occurred in spring 2021, which will be followed by focused work on data synthesis and modeling using the entire EXPORTS data set.
  • Article
    Toward a synthesis of phytoplankton communities composition methods for global-scale application
    (Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), 2024-02-23) Kramer, Sasha J. ; Bolanos, Luis M. ; Catlett, Dylan ; Chase, Alison P. ; Behrenfeld, Michael J. ; Boss, Emmanuel S. ; Crockford, E. Taylor ; Giovannoni, Stephen J. ; Graff, Jason R. ; Haentjens, Nils ; Karp-Boss, Lee ; Peacock, Emily E. ; Roesler, Collin S. ; Sosik, Heidi M. ; Siegel, David A.
    The composition of the marine phytoplankton community has been shown to impact many biogeochemical processes and marine ecosystem services. A variety of methods exist to characterize phytoplankton community composition (PCC), with varying degrees of taxonomic resolution. Accordingly, the resulting PCC determinations are dependent on the method used. Here, we use surface ocean samples collected in the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans to compare high-performance liquid chromatography pigment-based PCC to four other methods: quantitative cell imaging, flow cytometry, and 16S and 18S rRNA amplicon sequencing. These methods allow characterization of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic PCC across a wide range of size classes. PCC estimates of many taxa resolved at the class level (e.g., diatoms) show strong positive correlations across methods, while other groups (e.g., dinoflagellates) are not well captured by one or more methods. Since variations in phytoplankton pigment concentrations are related to changes in optical properties, this combined dataset expands the potential scope of ocean color remote sensing by associating PCC at the genus- and species-level with group- or class-level PCC from pigments. Quantifying the strengths and limitations of pigment-based PCC methods compared to PCC assessments from amplicon sequencing, imaging, and cytometry methods is the first step toward the robust validation of remote sensing approaches to quantify PCC from space.