Nicholson David P.

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Nicholson
First Name
David P.
ORCID
0000-0003-2653-9349

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Subject: Carbon cycle ×

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  • Article
    Impact of recently upwelled water on productivity investigated using in situ and incubation-based methods in Monterey Bay
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2017-03-11) Manning, Cara C. ; Stanley, Rachel H. R. ; Nicholson, David P. ; Smith, Jason M. ; Pennington, Timothy ; Fewings, Melanie R. ; Squibb, Michael E. ; Chavez, Francisco P.
    Photosynthetic conversion of inline image to organic carbon and the transport of this carbon from the surface to the deep ocean is an important regulator of atmospheric inline image. To understand the controls on carbon fluxes in a productive region impacted by upwelling, we measured biological productivity via multiple methods during a cruise in Monterey Bay, California. We quantified net community production and gross primary production from measurements of inline image/Ar and inline image triple isotopes ( inline image), respectively. We simultaneously conducted incubations measuring the uptake of 14C, inline image, and inline image, and nitrification, and deployed sediment traps. At the start of the cruise (Phase 1) the carbon cycle was at steady state and the estimated net community production was 35(10) and 35(8) mmol C m−2 d−1 from inline image/Ar and 15N incubations, respectively, a remarkably good agreement. During Phase 1, net primary production was 96(27) mmol C m−2 d−1 from C uptake, and gross primary production was 209(17) mmol C m−2 d−1 from inline image. Later in the cruise (Phase 2), recently upwelled water with higher nutrient concentrations entered the study area, causing 14C and inline image uptake to increase substantially. Continuous inline image/Ar measurements revealed submesoscale variability in water mass structure and likely productivity in Phase 2 that was not evident from the incubations. These data demonstrate that inline image/Ar and inline image incubation-based NCP estimates can give equivalent results in an N-limited, coastal system, when the nonsteady state inline image fluxes are negligible or can be quantified.
  • Article
    Discrepant estimates of primary and export production from satellite algorithms, a biogeochemical model, and geochemical tracer measurements in the North Pacific Ocean
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2016-08-30) Palevsky, Hilary I. ; Quay, Paul D. ; Nicholson, David P.
    Estimates of primary and export production (PP and EP) based on satellite remote sensing algorithms and global biogeochemical models are widely used to provide year-round global coverage not available from direct observations. However, observational data to validate these approaches are limited. We find that no single satellite algorithm or model can reproduce seasonal and annual geochemically determined PP, export efficiency (EP/PP), and EP rates throughout the North Pacific basin, based on comparisons throughout the full annual cycle at time series stations in the subarctic and subtropical gyres and basin-wide regions sampled by container ship transects. The high-latitude regions show large PP discrepancies in winter and spring and strong effects of deep winter mixed layers on annual EP that cannot be accounted for in current satellite-based approaches. These results underscore the need to evaluate satellite- and model-based estimates using multiple productivity parameters measured over broad ocean regions throughout the annual cycle.
  • Article
    The annual cycle of gross primary production, net community production, and export efficiency across the North Pacific Ocean
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2016-02-27) Palevsky, Hilary I. ; Quay, Paul D. ; Lockwood, Deirdre E. ; Nicholson, David P.
    We measured triple oxygen isotopes and oxygen/argon dissolved gas ratios as nonincubation-based geochemical tracers of gross oxygen production (GOP) and net community production (NCP) on 16 container ship transects across the North Pacific from 2008 to 2012. We estimate rates and efficiency of biological carbon export throughout the full annual cycle across the North Pacific basin (35°N–50°N, 142°E–125°W) by constructing mixed layer budgets that account for physical and biological influences on these tracers. During the productive season from spring to fall, GOP and NCP are highest in the Kuroshio region west of 170°E and decrease eastward across the basin. However, deep winter mixed layers (>200 m) west of 160°W ventilate ~40–90% of this seasonally exported carbon, while only ~10% of seasonally exported carbon east of 160°W is ventilated in winter where mixed layers are <120 m. As a result, despite higher annual GOP in the west than the east, the annual carbon export (sequestration) rate and efficiency decrease westward across the basin from export of 2.3 ± 0.3 mol C m−2 yr−1 east of 160°W to 0.5 ± 0.7 mol C m−2 yr−1 west of 170°E. Existing productivity rate estimates from time series stations are consistent with our regional productivity rate estimates in the eastern but not western North Pacific. These results highlight the need to estimate productivity rates over broad spatial areas and throughout the full annual cycle including during winter ventilation in order to accurately estimate the rate and efficiency of carbon sequestration via the ocean's biological pump.
  • Article
    Constraining ventilation during deepwater formation using deep ocean measurements of the dissolved gas ratios 40Ar/36Ar, N2/Ar, and Kr/Ar
    (American Geophysical Union, 2010-11-19) Nicholson, David P. ; Emerson, Steven ; Caillon, Nicolas ; Jouzel, Jean ; Hamme, Roberta C.
    The concentration of inert gases and their isotopes in the deep ocean are useful as tracers of air-sea gas exchange during deepwater formation. ΔKr/Ar, ΔN2/Ar, and δ40Ar were measured in deep profiles of samples collected in the northwest Pacific, subtropical North Pacific and tropical Atlantic oceans. For the ocean below 2000 m, we determined a mean ΔKr/Ar composition of −0.96% ± 0.16%, a mean ΔN2/Ar of 1.29% ± 0.21% relative to equilibrium saturation, and for δ40Ar a value of 1.188‰ ± 0.055‰ relative to air. These data are used to constrain high-latitude ventilation processes in the framework of three-box and seven-box ocean models. For the three-box model tracer data, we constrain the appropriate surface area of the high-latitude region in both models to be 3.6% (+2.5%, −1.7%) of ocean surface area and the bubble air injection rate to be 22.7 (+8.8, −7.3) mol air m−2 yr−1. Results for the seven-box model were similar, with a high-latitude area of 3.3% (+2.2%, −1.3%). Our results provide geochemical support for suggestions that the effective area of high-latitude ventilation is much smaller than the region of elevated preformed nutrients and demonstrate that noble gases strongly constrain the ocean solubility pump. Reducing high-latitude surface area weakens the CO2 solubility pump in the box models and limits communication between the atmosphere and deep ocean. These tracers should be useful constraints on high-latitude ventilation and the strength of the solubility pump in more complex ocean general circulation models.
  • 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.