Articles | Volume 22, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2461-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2461-2025
Research article
 | 
28 May 2025
Research article |  | 28 May 2025

Relationships between the concentration of particulate organic nitrogen and the inherent optical properties of seawater in oceanic surface waters

Alain Fumenia, Hubert Loisel, Rick A. Reynolds, and Dariusz Stramski

Related authors

Linking satellites to genes with machine learning to estimate phytoplankton community structure from space
Roy El Hourany, Juan Pierella Karlusich, Lucie Zinger, Hubert Loisel, Marina Levy, and Chris Bowler
Ocean Sci., 20, 217–239, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-217-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-217-2024, 2024
Short summary
Characterization of the organic vs. inorganic fraction of suspended particulate matter in coastal waters based on ocean color radiometry remote sensing
Hubert Loisel, Lucile Duforêt-Gaurier, Trung Kien Tran, Daniel Schaffer Ferreira Jorge, François Steinmetz, Antoine Mangin, Marine Bretagnon, and Odile Hembise Fanton d'Andon
State Planet, 1-osr7, 11, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-1-osr7-11-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-1-osr7-11-2023, 2023
Short summary
A synthetic optical database generated by radiative transfer simulations in support of studies in ocean optics and optical remote sensing of the global ocean
Hubert Loisel, Daniel Schaffer Ferreira Jorge, Rick A. Reynolds, and Dariusz Stramski
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3711–3731, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3711-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3711-2023, 2023
Short summary
Ocean color algorithm for the retrieval of the particle size distribution and carbon-based phytoplankton size classes using a two-component coated-sphere backscattering model
Tihomir S. Kostadinov, Lisl Robertson Lain, Christina Eunjin Kong, Xiaodong Zhang, Stéphane Maritorena, Stewart Bernard, Hubert Loisel, Daniel S. F. Jorge, Ekaterina Kochetkova, Shovonlal Roy, Bror Jonsson, Victor Martinez-Vicente, and Shubha Sathyendranath
Ocean Sci., 19, 703–727, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-703-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-703-2023, 2023
Short summary
A compilation of global bio-optical in situ data for ocean colour satellite applications – version three
André Valente, Shubha Sathyendranath, Vanda Brotas, Steve Groom, Michael Grant, Thomas Jackson, Andrei Chuprin, Malcolm Taberner, Ruth Airs, David Antoine, Robert Arnone, William M. Balch, Kathryn Barker, Ray Barlow, Simon Bélanger, Jean-François Berthon, Şükrü Beşiktepe, Yngve Borsheim, Astrid Bracher, Vittorio Brando, Robert J. W. Brewin, Elisabetta Canuti, Francisco P. Chavez, Andrés Cianca, Hervé Claustre, Lesley Clementson, Richard Crout, Afonso Ferreira, Scott Freeman, Robert Frouin, Carlos García-Soto, Stuart W. Gibb, Ralf Goericke, Richard Gould, Nathalie Guillocheau, Stanford B. Hooker, Chuamin Hu, Mati Kahru, Milton Kampel, Holger Klein, Susanne Kratzer, Raphael Kudela, Jesus Ledesma, Steven Lohrenz, Hubert Loisel, Antonio Mannino, Victor Martinez-Vicente, Patricia Matrai, David McKee, Brian G. Mitchell, Tiffany Moisan, Enrique Montes, Frank Muller-Karger, Aimee Neeley, Michael Novak, Leonie O'Dowd, Michael Ondrusek, Trevor Platt, Alex J. Poulton, Michel Repecaud, Rüdiger Röttgers, Thomas Schroeder, Timothy Smyth, Denise Smythe-Wright, Heidi M. Sosik, Crystal Thomas, Rob Thomas, Gavin Tilstone, Andreia Tracana, Michael Twardowski, Vincenzo Vellucci, Kenneth Voss, Jeremy Werdell, Marcel Wernand, Bozena Wojtasiewicz, Simon Wright, and Giuseppe Zibordi
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 5737–5770, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5737-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5737-2022, 2022
Short summary

Related subject area

Biogeochemistry: Open Ocean
Inadequacies in the representation of sub-seasonal phytoplankton dynamics in Earth system models
Madhavan Girijakumari Keerthi, Olivier Aumont, Lester Kwiatkowski, and Marina Levy
Biogeosciences, 22, 2163–2180, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2163-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2163-2025, 2025
Short summary
Composite model-based estimate of the ocean carbon sink from 1959 to 2022
Jens Terhaar
Biogeosciences, 22, 1631–1649, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1631-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1631-2025, 2025
Short summary
Phytoplankton community structure in relation to iron and macronutrient fluxes from subsurface waters in the western North Pacific during summer
Huailin Deng, Koji Suzuki, Ichiro Yasuda, Hiroshi Ogawa, and Jun Nishioka
Biogeosciences, 22, 1495–1508, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1495-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1495-2025, 2025
Short summary
Intense and localized export of selected marine snow types at eddy edges in the South Atlantic Ocean
Alexandre Accardo, Rémi Laxenaire, Alberto Baudena, Sabrina Speich, Rainer Kiko, and Lars Stemmann
Biogeosciences, 22, 1183–1201, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1183-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1183-2025, 2025
Short summary
Spatial distributions of iron and manganese in surface waters of the Arctic's Laptev and East Siberian seas
Naoya Kanna, Kazutaka Tateyama, Takuji Waseda, Anna Timofeeva, Maria Papadimitraki, Laura Whitmore, Hajime Obata, Daiki Nomura, Hiroshi Ogawa, Youhei Yamashita, and Igor Polyakov
Biogeosciences, 22, 1057–1076, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1057-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-1057-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Allison, D. B., Stramski, D., and Mitchell, B. G.: Empirical ocean color algorithms for estimating particulate organic carbon in the Southern Ocean, J. Geophys. Res., 115, C10044, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JC006040, 2010. 
Arrigo, K. R.: Impacts of climate on ecosystems and chemistry of the Arctic Pacific environment (ICESCAPE), Deep-Sea Res. Pt. II, 118, 1–6, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2015.06.007, 2015. 
Babin, M., Morel, A., Fournier-Sicre, V., Fell, F., and Stramski, D.: Light scattering properties of marine particles in coastal and open ocean waters as related to the particle mass concentration, Limnol. Oceanogr., 48, 843–859, https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.2003.48.2.0843, 2003a. 
Babin, M., Stramski, D., Ferrari, G. M., Claustre, H., Bricaud, A., Obolensky, G., and Hoepffner, N.: Variations in the light absorption coefficients of phytoplankton, nonalgal particles, and dissolved organic matter in coastal waters around Europe, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 108, 3211, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JC000882, 2003b. 
Barbieux, M., Uitz, J., Mignot, A., Roesler, C., Claustre, H., Gentili, B., Taillandier, V., D'Ortenzio, F., Loisel, H., Poteau, A., Leymarie, E., Penkerc'h, C., Schmechtig, C., and Bricaud, A.: Biological production in two contrasted regions of the Mediterranean Sea during the oligotrophic period: an estimate based on the diel cycle of optical properties measured by BioGeoChemical-Argo profiling floats, Biogeosciences, 19, 1165–1194, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-1165-2022, 2022. 
Download
Short summary
Particulate organic nitrogen (PON) plays a central role in ocean biogeochemistry, yet limited in situ data hinder a full understanding of PON variability and associated processes. Measurements of optical properties offer an alternative for assessing PON across diverse marine environments. Our analysis reveals strong relationships between PON and optical properties, supporting a promising means to assess PON from optical measurements performed in situ or conducted from remote-sensing platforms.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint