What is the metabolic state of the oligotrophic ocean? A debate
Date
2012-07Metadata
Show full item recordCitable URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5282As published
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-121211-172331Abstract
For more than a decade there has been controversy in oceanography regarding the
metabolic state of the oligotrophic gyres of the open sea. Here we review background on
this controversy, commenting on several issues to set the context for a moderated debate
between two groups of scientists. In a companion paper, Williams et al (2013) take the
view that the oligotrophic subtropical gyres of the global ocean exhibit a state of net
autotrophy, that is, the gross primary production (GPP) exceeds community respiration
(R), when averaged over some suitably extensive region and over a long duration. Duarte
et al (2013) take the opposite view, that the oligotrophic subtropical gyres are net
heterotrophic, with R exceeding the GPP. This idea -- that large, remote areas of the
upper ocean could be net heterotrophic raises of host of fundamental scientific questions
about the metabolic processes of photosynthesis and respiration that underlie ocean
ecology and global biogeochemistry. The question remains unresolved, in part, because
the net state is finely balanced between large opposing fluxes and most current
measurements have large uncertainties. This challenging question must be studied against
the background of large, anthropogenically-driven changes in ocean ecology and
biogeochemistry Current trends of anthropogenic change make it an urgent problem to
solve and also greatly complicate finding that solution.
Description
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2012. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Annual Reviews for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Annual Review of Marine Science 5 (2013):525-533, doi:10.1146/annurev-marine-121211-172331.
Suggested Citation
Preprint: Ducklow, Hugh W., Doney, Scott C., "What is the metabolic state of the oligotrophic ocean? A debate", 2012-07, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-121211-172331, https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5282Related items
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