A time series analysis of transparent exopolymer particle distributions and C&thinsp;:&thinsp;N stoichiometry in the subtropical North Pacific: a key process in net community production and preformed nitrate anomalies?

Curran, Kieran; Villareal, Tracy A.; Letscher, Robert T.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3515-2025

Articles | Volume 22, issue 14

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3515-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-3515-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 14

Research article

|

23 Jul 2025

Research article |

| 23 Jul 2025

A time series analysis of transparent exopolymer particle distributions and C : N stoichiometry in the subtropical North Pacific: a key process in net community production and preformed nitrate anomalies?

Kieran Curran, Tracy A. Villareal, and Robert T. Letscher

Data sets

TEP and CSP particles collected from Station ALOHA for HOT time series during R/V Kilo Moana cruises from Jan 2020 to Sep 2022 R. T. Letscher and K. Curran https://doi.org/10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.968732.1

TEP and CSP particle concentrations from samples collected from Station ALOHA to 31º N in the North Pacific in June 2021 on the R/V Kilo Moana cruise KM2108 R. T. Letscher and K. Curran https://doi.org/10.26008/1912/bco-dmo.968636.1

Short summary

This work provides a 2-year record of marine organic gel concentrations from an open-ocean site in the subtropical North Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii. These microscopic gels are investigated to understand their importance as an understudied component of organic matter cycling by marine microbes. We find an important role of gel cycling during the summer months, helping explain previously contradictory estimates of nutrient supply and demand for the subtropical ocean.