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Ocean biogeochemical fingerprints of fast-sinking tunicate and fish detritus
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  • Jessica Y. Luo,
  • Charles A. Stock,
  • John P. Dunne,
  • Grace Saba,
  • Lauren Cook
Jessica Y. Luo
NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Charles A. Stock
NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
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John P. Dunne
NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
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Grace Saba
Rutgers University
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Lauren Cook
Rutgers University
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Abstract

Pelagic tunicates (salps, pyrosomes) and fishes generate jelly-falls and/or fecal pellets that sink roughly 10 times faster than bulk oceanic detritus, but their impacts on biogeochemical cycles in the ocean interior are poorly understood. Using a coupled physical-biogeochemical model, we find that fast-sinking detritus decreased global net primary production and surface export, but increased deep sequestration and transfer efficiency in much of the extratropics and upwelling zones. Fast-sinking detritus generally decreased total suboxic and hypoxic volumes, reducing a “large oxygen minimum zone (OMZ)” bias common in global biogeochemical models. Newly aerobic regions at OMZ edges exhibited reduced transfer efficiencies in contrast with global tendencies. Reductions in water column denitrification resulting from improved OMZs improved simulated nitrate deficits relative to phosphate. The carbon flux to the benthos increased by 11% with fast-sinking detritus from fishes and pelagic tunicates, yet simulated benthic fluxes remained on the lower end of observation-based estimates.
02 Nov 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
03 Nov 2023Published in ESS Open Archive
16 Feb 2024Published in Geophysical Research Letters volume 51 issue 3. 10.1029/2023GL107052