Abstract. The Eastern Tropical North Atlantic (ETNA) is an open ocean region with little input of terrestrial dissolved organic matter (DOM), suggesting that pelagic production has to be the main source of DOM. Inorganic nitrogen (DIN) and phosphorus (DIP) concentrations affect pelagic production, leading to DOM modifications. The quantitative and qualitative changes in DOM are often estimated by its optical properties. Colored DOM (CDOM) is often used to estimate dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations by applied techniques, e.g. through remote sensing, whereas DOM properties, such as molecular weight, can be estimated from the slopes of the CDOM absorption spectra (S). Fluorescence properties of CDOM (FDOM) allow discriminating between different structural CDOM properties. The investigation of distribution and cycling of CDOM and FDOM was recognized to be important for understanding of physical and biogeochemical processes, influencing DOM. However, little information is available about effects of nutrient variability on CDOM and FDOM dynamics. Here we present results from two mesocosm experiments conducted with a natural plankton community of the ETNA, where effects of DIP ("Varied P") and DIN ("Varied N") supply on optical properties of DOM were studied. CDOM accumulated proportionally to phytoplankton biomass during the experiments. S decreased over time indicating accumulation of high molecular weight DOM. In Varied N, an additional CDOM portion, as a result of bacterial DOM reworking, was determined. It increased the CDOM fraction in DOC proportionally to the supplied DIN. The humic-like FDOM component (Comp.1) was derived by bacteria proportionally to DIN supply. The bound-to-protein amino acid-like FDOM component (Comp.2) was released irrespectively to phytoplankton biomass, but depending on DIP and DIN concentrations, as a part of an overflow mechanism. Under high DIN supply, Comp.2 was removed by bacterial reworking processes, leading to an accumulation of humic-like Comp.1. No influence of nutrient availability on amino acid-like FDOM component in peptide form (Comp.3) was observed. Comp.3 potentially acted as an intermediate product during formation or degradation Comp.2. Our findings suggest that changes in nutrient concentrations may lead to substantial responses in the quantity and "quality" of optically active DOM and, therefore, might bias results of the applied techniques for an estimation of DOC concentrations in open ocean regions.
Amino acid enantiomers in old and young dissolved organic matter: Implications for a microbial nitrogen pump