Articles | Volume 22, issue 14
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3485-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3485-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Marine snow morphology drives sinking and attenuation in the ocean interior
Yawouvi Dodji Soviadan
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, UMR 7093 LOV, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Université de Lomé, Lomé, TOGO, France
MARBEC, IRD, IFREMER, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, 87 Avenue Jean Monnet, 34200 Sète, France
Miriam Beck
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, UMR 7093 LOV, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
FRB-CESAB, Montpellier, France
Joelle Habib
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, UMR 7093 LOV, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Alberto Baudena
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, UMR 7093 LOV, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche-Istituto di Scienze Marine (CNR-ISMAR), Lerici (SP), Italy
Laetitia Drago
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, UMR 7093 LOV, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Sorbonne Université, UMR 7159 CNRS-IRD-MNHN, LOCEAN-IPSL, Paris, France
Alexandre Accardo
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, UMR 7093 LOV, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Remi Laxenaire
Laboratoire de l'Atmosphère et des Cyclones, LACy, UMR 8105, CNRS, Université de La Réunion, Météo-France, Saint-Denis de La Réunion, France
Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
Sabrina Speich
Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique – IPSL, ENS – PSL, Paris, France
Peter Brandt
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
Rainer Kiko
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, UMR 7093 LOV, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, UMR 7093 LOV, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
Data sets
Argo float Angola data and metadata from Global Data Assembly Centre (Argo GDAC) Argo https://doi.org/10.17882/42182#117069
Co-editor-in-chief
This study is the first to measure marine snow morphologies, sinking speeds, and midwater attenuation in export plumes using a BGC-Argo float equipped with optical and imaging sensors, offering new insights into the effects of morphology on particle sinking. The findings emphasize the need to move beyond size-based models by incorporating morphological properties to improve understanding of particle sinking and enhance flux estimates, with potential applications for monitoring natural and human-induced export events at high spatio-temporal resolution.
This study is the first to measure marine snow morphologies, sinking speeds, and midwater...
Short summary
Key parameters representing the gravity flux in global models are sinking speed and vertical attenuation of exported material. We calculate, for the first time, these parameters in situ in the ocean for six intermittent blooms followed by export events using high-resolution (3 d) time series of 0–1000 m depth profiles from imaging sensors mounted on an Argo float. We show that sinking speed depends not only on size but also on the morphology of the particles, with density being an important property.
Key parameters representing the gravity flux in global models are sinking speed and vertical...
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