Seasonality of downward carbon export in the Pacific Southern Ocean revealed by multi-year robotic observations.

At high latitudes, the biological carbon pump, which exports organic matter from the surface ocean to the interior, has been attributed to the gravitational sinking of particulate organic carbon. Conspicuous deficits in ocean carbon budgets challenge this as a sole particle export pathway. Recent model estimates revealed that particle injection pumps have a comparable downward flux of particulate organic carbon to the biological gravitational pump, but with different seasonality. To date, logistical constraints have prevented concomitant and extensive observations of these mechanisms. Here, using year-round robotic observations and recent advances in bio-optical signal analysis, we concurrently investigated the functioning of two particle injection pumps, the mixed layer and eddy subduction pumps, and the gravitational pump in Southern Ocean waters. By comparing three annual cycles in contrasting physical and biogeochemical environments, we show how physical forcing, phytoplankton phenology and particle characteristics influence the magnitude and seasonality of these export pathways, with implications for carbon sequestration efficiency over the annual cycle.

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© 2023. The Author(s).