Abstract. Coastal upwelling ecosystems with marked oxyclines (redoxclines) present high availability of electron donors that favour chemoautotrophy, leading in turn to high N2O and CH4 cycling associated with aerobic NH4+ (AAO) and CH4 oxidation (AMO). This is the case of the highly productive coastal upwelling area off Central Chile (36° S), where we evaluated the importance of total chemolithoautotrophic vs. photoautotrophic production, the specific contributions of AAO and AMO to chemosynthesis and their role in gas cycling. Chemoautotrophy (involving bacteria and archaea) was studied at a time-series station during monthly (2002–2009) and seasonal cruises (January 2008, September 2008, January 2009) and was assessed in terms of dark carbon assimilation (CA), N2O and CH4 cycling, and the natural C isotopic ratio of particulate organic carbon (δ13POC). Total Integrated dark CA fluctuated between 19.4 and 2.924 mg C m−2 d−1. It was higher during active upwelling and represented on average 27% of the integrated photoautotrophic production (from 135 to 7.626 mg C m−2d−1). At the oxycline, δ13POC averaged -22.209‰ this was significantly lighter compared to the surface (-19.674‰) and bottom layers (-20.716‰). This pattern, along with low NH4+ content and high accumulations of N2O, NO2- and NO3- within the oxycline indicates that chemolithoautotrophs and specifically AA oxydisers were active. Dark CA was reduced from 27 to 48% after addition of a specific AAO inhibitor (ATU) and from 24 to 76% with GC7, a specific archaea inhibitor, indicating that AAO and maybe AMO microbes (most of them archaea) were performing dark CA through oxidation of NH4+ and CH4. AAO produced N2O at rates from 8.88 to 43 nM d−1 and a fraction of it was effluxed into the atmosphere (up to 42.85 μmol m−2 d−1). AMO on the other hand consumed CH4 at rates between 0.41 and 26.8 nM d−1 therefore preventing its efflux to the atmosphere (up to 18.69 μmol m−2 d−1). These findings show that chemically driven chemoautotrophy (with NH4+ and CH4 acting as electron donors) could be more important than previously thought in upwelling ecosystems and open new questions concerning its future relevance.
Chemolithoautotrophic production mediating the cycling of the greenhouses gases N<sub>2</sub>O and CH<sub>4</sub> in an upwelling ecosystem