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.