Articles | Volume 15, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-2961-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-2961-2018
Research article
 | 
16 May 2018
Research article |  | 16 May 2018

Nutrient availability and the ultimate control of the biological carbon pump in the western tropical South Pacific Ocean

Thierry Moutin, Thibaut Wagener, Mathieu Caffin, Alain Fumenia, Audrey Gimenez, Melika Baklouti, Pascale Bouruet-Aubertot, Mireille Pujo-Pay, Karine Leblanc, Dominique Lefevre, Sandra Helias Nunige, Nathalie Leblond, Olivier Grosso, and Alain de Verneil

Data sets

OUTPACE cruise Thierry Moutin and Sophie Bonnet https://doi.org/10.17600/15000900

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Short summary
Surface waters of the western tropical South Pacific were sampled along a longitudinal 4000 km transect during the stratified period between the Melanesian Archipelago and the western part of the South Pacific gyre. We found a significant biological carbon pump sustained almost exclusively by N2 fixation and essentially controlled by phosphate availability in the iron-rich Melanesian Archipelago waters which appears to be a net sink for atmospheric CO2 while the gyre is in a quasi-steady state.
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