High particle export over the continental shelf of the west Antarctic Peninsula

View/ Open
Date
2010-11-24Author
Buesseler, Ken O.
Concept link
McDonnell, Andrew M. P.
Concept link
Schofield, Oscar M. E.
Concept link
Steinberg, Deborah K.
Concept link
Ducklow, Hugh W.
Concept link
Metadata
Show full item recordCitable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4282As published
https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL045448DOI
10.1029/2010GL045448Keyword
Particle export; Sediment trap; Thorium-234Abstract
Drifting cylindrical traps and the flux proxy 234Th indicate more than an order of magnitude higher sinking fluxes of particulate carbon and 234Th in January 2009 than measured by a time-series conical trap used regularly on the shelf of the west Antarctic Peninsula (WAP). The higher fluxes measured in this study have several implications for our understanding of the WAP ecosystem. Larger sinking fluxes result in a revised export efficiency of at least 10% (C flux/net primary production) and a requisite lower regeneration efficiency in surface waters. High fluxes also result in a large supply of sinking organic matter to support subsurface and benthic food webs on the continental shelf. These new findings call into question the magnitude of seasonal and interannual variability in particle flux and reaffirm the difficulty of using moored conical traps as a quantitative flux collector in shallow waters.
Description
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 37 (2010): L22606, doi:10.1029/2010GL045448.
Suggested Citation
Article: Buesseler, Ken O., McDonnell, Andrew M. P., Schofield, Oscar M. E., Steinberg, Deborah K., Ducklow, Hugh W., "High particle export over the continental shelf of the west Antarctic Peninsula", Geophysical Research Letters 37 (2010): L22606, DOI:10.1029/2010GL045448, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4282Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Observations of carbon export by small sinking particles in the upper mesopelagic
Durkin, Colleen A.; Estapa, Margaret L.; Buesseler, Ken O. (Elsevier, 2015-02-27)Carbon and nutrients are transported out of the surface ocean and sequestered at depth by sinking particles. Sinking particle sizes span many orders of magnitude and the relative influence of small particles on carbon ... -
Particle export during the Southern Ocean Iron Experiment (SOFeX)
Buesseler, Ken O.; Andrews, J. E.; Pike, Steven M.; Charette, Matthew A.; Goldson, Laura E.; Brzezinski, Mark A.; Lance, V. P. (2004-07-26)We studied the effect of iron addition on particle export in the Southern Ocean by measuring changes in the distribution of thorium-234 during a 4 week Fe enrichment experiment conducted in the high-silicate high-nitrate ... -
Th-234 deficit and excess in the Southern Ocean during spring 2001 : particle export and remineralization
Savoye, Nicolas; Buesseler, Ken O.; Cardinal, Damien; Dehairs, Frank (American Geophysical Union, 2004-06-16)234Th deficit and excess were examined in the upper 500 m of the Southern Ocean from Sub-Antarctic to Seasonal Ice Zones (Australian sector) during austral spring 2001. 234Th fluxes at 100 m indicate that particle export ...