Size fractionated suspended organic carbon and nitrogen from the
offshore Eastern Tropical North Pacific Oxygen Deficient Zone suggest
contributions of picocyanobacteria and vertically migrating metazoans to
organic matter
Abstract
Oxygen Deficient Zones (ODZs) are key areas of N loss, a process
dependent on organic matter. Understanding the sources of organic matter
to the ODZ is necessary to predict how biogeochemical cycles will
respond to ocean changes. Size fractionated (5-20, 20-53, 53-180,
180-500, >500 µm) particulate organic C and N (POM)
concentration and isotopic composition depth profiles from three
stations in the offshore Eastern Tropical North Pacific (ETNP) ODZ were
used to create previously missing ETNP specific particle size to carbon
and nitrogen relationships for models, while gaining insights into the
origins of POM in the ODZ. Since the within-ODZ Prochlorococcus
assimilate nitrite, we used the resulting highly depleted d15N signal to
trace organic matter of cyanobacterial origin to medium sized particles
at the secondary chlorophyll maximum (SCM), and to >500 µm
particles directly below the SCM. This organic nitrogen was consumed in
the upper ODZ. Other POM maxima were seen at the zooplankton vertical
migration maxima with the increase in POM marked in the 5-20 µm
fraction. In the deep ODZ, below the zooplankton migration depth, POM
concentrations in the 5-20 µm fraction were unusually small, the C:N
ratios were extremely high (>20), and d15N was enriched
(8-12‰), indicating degraded material. In deep samples, d13C was more
depleted in larger particle size and correlated with enriched d15N,
indicating increased degradation in 53-500 µm particles. This trend
suggests an additional source of small particles, such as from in situ
production, rather than just the fragmentation of large particles.