Marine snow morphology illuminates the evolution of phytoplankton blooms and determines their subsequent vertical export

The organic carbon produced in the ocean’s surface by phytoplankton is either passed through the food web or exported to the ocean interior as marine snow. The rate and efficiency of such vertical export strongly depend on the size, structure and shape of individual particles, but apart from size, other morphological properties are still not quantitatively monitored. With the growing number of in situ imaging technologies, there is now a great possibility to analyze the morphology of individual marine snow. Thus, automated methods for their classification are urgently needed. Consequently, here we present a simple, objective categorization method of marine snow into a few ecologically meaningful functional morphotypes using field data from successive phases of the Arctic phytoplankton bloom. The proposed approach is a promising tool for future studies aiming to integrate the diversity, composition and morphology of marine snow into our understanding of the biological carbon pump.

Sea ice protists in arctic marine sedaDNA records: origins, diversity, and vertical export of DNA from the sea surface to the seafloor

<p>Arctic sea ice is declining at an unprecedented pace as the Arctic Ocean heads towards ice-free summers within the next few decades. Because of the role of sea ice in the Earth System such as ocean circulation and ecosystem functioning, reconstructing its past variability is of great importance providing insight into past climate patterns and future climate scenarios. Today, much of our knowledge of past sea-ice variability derives from a relatively few microfossil and biogeochemical tracers, which have limitations, such as preservation biases and low taxonomic resolution. Marine sedimentary ancient DNA (marine <em>seda</em>DNA) has the potential to capture more of the arctic marine biodiversity compared to other approaches. However, little is known about how well past communities are represented in marine <em>seda</em>DNA. The transport and fate of DNA derived from sea-ice associated organisms, from surface waters to the seafloor and its eventual incorporation into marine sediment records is poorly understood.  Here, we present results from a study applying a combination of methods to examine modern and ancient DNA to material collected along the Northeast Greenland Shelf. We characterized the vertical export of genetic material by amplicon sequencing the hyper-variable V4 region of the 18S rDNA at three water depths, in surface sediments, and in a dated sediment core.  The amplicon sequencing approach, as currently applied, includes some limitations for quantitative reconstructions of past changes such as primer competition, PCR errors, and variation of gene copy numbers across different taxa. For these reasons we quantified amplicons from a single species, the circum-polar sea ice dinoflagellate <em>Polarella glacialis</em> in the marine <em>seda</em>DNA, using digital droplet PCR. The results will increase our understanding on the taphonomy of DNA in sea ice environments, how sedimentation differs among taxonomic groups, and provide indications to potentially useful marine <em>seda</em>DNA-based proxies for climate and environmental reconstructions.</p>

NAPTRAM - Plastiktransportmechanismen, Senken und Interaktionen mit Biota im Nordatlantik / NAPTRAM - North Atlantic plastic transport mechanisms, sinks, and interactions with biota, Cruise No. SO279, Emden (Germany) – Emden (Germany), 04.12.2020 – 05.01.2021

The coastal and open oceans represent a major, but yet unconstrained, sink for plastics. It is likely that plastic-biota interactions are a key driver for the fragmentation, aggregation, and vertical transport of plastic litter from surface waters to sedimentary sinks. Cruise SO279 conducted sampling to address core questions of microplastic distribution in the open ocean water column, biota, and sediments. Seven stations were sampled between the outer Bay of Biscay and the primary working area south of the Azores. Additional samples were collected from surface waters along the cruise track to link European coastal and shelf waters with the open ocean gyre. Microplastic samples coupled with geochemical tracer analyses will build a mechanistic understanding of MP transport and its biological impact reaching from coastal seas to the central gyre water column and sinks at the seabed. Furthermore, floating plastics were sampled for microbial community and genetic analyses to investigate potential enzymatic degradation pathways. Cruise SO279 served as the third cruise of a number of connected research cruises to build an understanding of the transport pathways of plastic and microplastic debris in the North Atlantic from the input through rivers and air across coastal seas into the accumulation spots in the North Atlantic gyre and the vertical export to its sink at the seabed. The cruise was an international effort as part of the JPI Oceans project HOTMIC (“HOrizontal and vertical oceanic distribution, Transport, and impact of MICroplastics”) and the BMBF funded project PLASTISEA (‘Harvesting the marine Plastisphere for novel cleaning concepts’), and formed a joint effort of HOTMIC and PLASTISEA researchers from a range of countries and institutes.

Observations of Submesoscale Variability and Frontal Subduction within the Mesoscale Eddy Field of the Tasman Sea

Submesoscale lenses of water with anomalous hydrographic properties have previously been observed in the East Australian Current (EAC) system, embedded within the thermocline of mesoscale anticyclonic eddies. The waters within these lenses have high oxygen content and temperature–salinity properties that signify a surface origin. However, it is not known how these lenses form. This study presents field observations that provide insight into a possible generation mechanism via subduction at upper-ocean fronts. High-resolution hydrographic and velocity measurements of submesoscale activity were taken across a front between a mesoscale eddy dipole downstream of the EAC separation point. The front had O(1) Rossby number, strong vertical shear, and flow conducive to symmetric instability. Frontogenesis was measured in conjunction with subduction of an anticyclonic water parcel, indicative of intrathermocline eddy formation. Twenty-five years of satellite imagery reveals the existence of strong mesoscale strain coupled with strong temperature fronts in this region and indicates the conditions that led to frontal subduction observed here are a persistent feature. These processes impact the vertical export of tracers from the surface and dissipation of mesoscale kinetic energy, implicating their importance for understanding regional ocean circulation and biological productivity.

Latitudinal distributions of 234Th in the upper western Indian Ocean

<p>We conducted an onboard measurement of dissolved- and particulate <sup>234</sup>Th in seawater of upper Indian Ocean. The study region covers the meridional section of upper (<500 m depth) Indian Ocean (3⁰N to 15⁰S at 67⁰E in July 2017, and 5⁰S to 13⁰S at 60⁰E and 5⁰S to 24⁰S 67⁰E in April 2018). Dissolved and particulate (>1.2 μm) <sup>234</sup>Th ranged 0.8 – 2.7 dpm L<sup>-1</sup> and 0.05 – 0.7 dpm L<sup>-1</sup>, respectively. In July 2017, the large deficiency of dissolved <sup>234</sup>Th were consistently observed at ~50m depth where the subsurface chlorophyll maximum (SCM) present, along the entire section (5⁰S to 13⁰S). After then, the <sup>234</sup>Th/<sup>238</sup>U were almost ~1 in ≥100 m depths. In contrast, in April 2018, the significant deficits of dissolved <sup>234</sup>Th were observed in entire upper water columns, 0 – 200m depths. This difference in distribution patterns between two years appears to be related to the annual-/seasonal- variations of SCM patterns. In 2018, SCM were shown in 70 – 80 m depths near equator (5⁰S degree), and gradually deepens in lower latitude (SCM presents in 130 m depths in 24⁰S). Interestingly, the unusually lowest dissolved <sup>234</sup>Th (and very low particulate <sup>234</sup>Th also,) were observed in 5⁰S 60⁰E, near the Seychelles–Chagos thermocline ridge (SCTR) region. There are two hypotheses to explain this extremely lower concentrations of <sup>234</sup>Th. The one is that the large input of lithogenic particles from SCTR, seems to be due to largest <sup>234</sup>Th removal in the water column of extremely shallow area (<300 m of bottom depth). The other is that unusually strong eastward currents (>1 m/s of zonal velocity, based on ADCP observations) can laterally transport the <sup>234</sup>Th. In this presentation, we will also present the preliminary results of vertical export fluxes of some particulate trace elements (Al, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Ni, Pb, and etc.) in the upper Indian Ocean estimated by using this <sup>234</sup>Th tracer.</p>