Articles | Volume 13, issue 17
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4927-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-13-4927-2016
Research article
 | 
07 Sep 2016
Research article |  | 07 Sep 2016

Depth-resolved particle-associated microbial respiration in the northeast Atlantic

Anna Belcher, Morten Iversen, Sarah Giering, Virginie Riou, Stephanie A. Henson, Leo Berline, Loic Guilloux, and Richard Sanders

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Cited articles

Alldredge, A. L.: The carbon, nitrogen and mass content of marine snow as a function of aggregate size, Deep Sea Res. Part I Oceanogr. Res. Pap., 45, 529–541, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0967-0637(97)00048-4, 1998.
Alldredge, A. L.: Interstitial dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations within sinking marine aggregates and their potential contribution to carbon flux, Limnol. Oceanogr., 45, 1245–1253, https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.2000.45.6.1245, 2000.
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Alldredge, A. L. and Youngbluth, M. J.: The significance of macroscopic aggregates (marine snow) as sites for heterotrophic bacterial production in the mesopelagic zone of the subtropical Atlantic, Deep Sea Res., 32, 1445–1456, https://doi.org/10.1016/0198-0149(85)90096-2, 1985.
Alldredge, A. L., Granata, T. C., Gotschalk, C. C., and Dickey, T. D.: The physical strength of marine snow and its implications for particle disaggregation in the ocean, Limnol. Oceanogr., 35, 1415–1428, https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.1990.35.7.1415, 1990.
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Short summary
We address the imbalance between the supply and loss of organic carbon to the upper layer of the ocean by measuring a previously poorly quantified term: particle-associated microbial respiration of in situ particles. We find rates that are too low to account for the missing sink of carbon and suggest instead that zooplankton drive the transformation of large fast-sinking particles into slow-sinking and suspended particles. This apparent loss may help explain imbalances in the carbon budget.
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