Differences in sinking processes and contribution of biological pumps
among phytoplankton functional types to the bathypelagic layer
Abstract
Changes in phytoplankton assemblages may significantly alter elemental
cycles. However, the differing contributions of phytoplankton functional
types to the biological pumps have not been explored. This study aims to
evaluate the sinking process of phytoplankton to the bathypelagic layer
at the functional-type level. We collected sinking particles using
sediment traps moored at 387 m and 890 m depths from June to August 2022
in the Sea of Japan and morphologically divided them into aggregates and
fecal pellets (ellipsoidal, cylindrical, spherical, and tabular). The
carbon flux of sinking particle types was measured, and the
phytoplankton assemblages in every sinking particle type were
investigated with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The proportion of
the phytoplankton-origin amplicon sequence variant (ASV) per total 16S
gene sequence reads numbers in aggregates was 5.76 ± 0.496% (median ±
interquartile range, n = 6) at 890 m, which was significantly lower than
that in the ellipsoidal fecal pellets (8.96 ± 6.00%, n = 64) at 890 m
depth. The number and sizes of the ellipsoidal pellets, considered
appendicularian-origin, significantly increased with depth, and bigger
ellipsoidal pellets were richer in phytoplankton ASVs. Diatom
Chaetocerotales were the dominant phytoplankton group in each sample
type and depth, except in the ellipsoidal and cylindrical fecal pellets
at 890 m depth, where cyanobacteria Synechococcus was dominant. This
suggests that phytoplankton, including Synechococcus, is effectively
transported to the bathypelagic layer via the mesopelagic
appendicularians repackaging process, while diatom Chaetocerotales
effectively sink, regardless of the sinking processes.