Articles | Volume 15, issue 21
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6461-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-6461-2018
Research article
 | 
02 Nov 2018
Research article |  | 02 Nov 2018

Evaluation of the seasonal formation of subsurface negative preformed nitrate anomalies in the subtropical North Pacific and North Atlantic

Robert T. Letscher and Tracy A. Villareal

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Cited articles

Abell, J., Emerson, S., and Renaud, P.: Distributions of TOP, TON and TOC in the North Pacific subtropical gyre: Implications for nutrient supply in the surface ocean and remineralization in the upper thermocline, J. Marine Research, 58, 203–222, 2000. 
Abell, J., Emerson, S., and Keil, R. G.: Using preformed nitrate to infer decadal changes in DOM remineralization in the subtropical North Pacific, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 19, GB1008, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GB002285, 2005. 
Ascani, F., Richards, K. J., Firing, E., Grant, S., Johnson, K. S., Jia, Y., Lukas, R., and Karl, D. M.: Physical and biological controls of nitrate concentrations in the upper subtropical North Pacific Ocean, Deep-Sea Res. Pt. II, 93, 119–134, 2013. 
Alldredge, A. L. and Silver, M. W.: Abundance and production rates of floating diatom mats (Rhizosolenia castracanei and Rhizosolenia imbricata var. shrubsolei) in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Mar. Biol., 66, 83–88, 1982. 
Alldredge, A. L., Passow, U., and Logan, B. E.: The abundance and significance of a class of large, transparent organic particles in the ocean, Deep-Sea Res. Pt. I, 40, 1131–1140, 1993. 
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Short summary
The formation rates of oxygen to nitrogen anomalies in the subtropical North Pacific and North Atlantic were estimated from time series data. We find that vertically migrating phytoplankton, which traverse ~ 100–150 m in the upper ocean over days to acquire nutrients from waters at depth and return to the surface for photosynthesis, likely explain the observed anomalies and help sustain surface ocean productivity and the biological pump throughout the annual cycle in the subtropical ocean.
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