The vertical distribution of the beam attenuation coefficient and its correlation to the particulate organic carbon in the north South China Sea

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wansong Cui ◽  
Difeng Wang ◽  
Fang Gong ◽  
Yan Bai ◽  
Lin Zhang ◽  
...  
2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 837-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Grob ◽  
O. Ulloa ◽  
H. Claustre ◽  
Y. Huot ◽  
G. Alarcón ◽  
...  

Abstract. Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus, picophytoeukaryotes and bacterioplankton abundances and contributions to the total particulate organic carbon concentration, derived from the total particle beam attenuation coefficient (cp), were determined across the eastern South Pacific between the Marquesas Islands and the coast of Chile. All flow cytometrically derived abundances decreased towards the hyper-oligotrophic centre of the gyre and were highest at the coast, except for Prochlorococcus, which was not detected under eutrophic conditions. Temperature and nutrient availability appeared important in modulating picophytoplankton abundance, according to the prevailing trophic conditions. Although the non-vegetal particles tended to dominate the cp signal everywhere along the transect (50 to 83%), this dominance seemed to weaken from oligo- to eutrophic conditions, the contributions by vegetal and non-vegetal particles being about equal under mature upwelling conditions. Spatial variability in the vegetal compartment was more important than the non-vegetal one in shaping the water column particle beam attenuation coefficient. Spatial variability in picophytoplankton biomass could be traced by changes in both total chlorophyll a (i.e. mono + divinyl chlorophyll a) concentration and cp. Finally, picophytoeukaryotes contributed ~38% on average to the total integrated phytoplankton carbon biomass or vegetal attenuation signal along the transect, as determined by size measurements (i.e. equivalent spherical diameter) on cells sorted by flow cytometry and optical theory. Although there are some uncertainties associated with these estimates, the new approach used in this work further supports the idea that picophytoeukaryotes play a dominant role in carbon cycling in the upper open ocean, even under hyper-oligotrophic conditions.


Author(s):  
R. Sauzède ◽  
J. E. Johnson ◽  
H. Claustre ◽  
G. Camps-Valls ◽  
A. B. Ruescas

Abstract. Understanding and quantifying ocean carbon sinks of the planet is of paramount relevance in the current scenario of global change. Particulate organic carbon (POC) is a key biogeochemical parameter that helps us characterize export processes of the ocean. Ocean color observations enable the estimation of bio-optical proxies of POC (i.e. particulate backscattering coefficient, bbp) in the surface layer of the ocean quasi-synoptically. In parallel, the Argo program distributes vertical profiles of the physical properties with a global coverage and a high spatio-temporal resolution. Merging satellite ocean color and Argo data using a neural networkbased method has already shown strong potential to infer the vertical distribution of bio-optical properties at global scale with high space-time resolution. This method is trained and validated using a database of concurrent vertical profiles of temperature, salinity, and bio-optical properties, i.e. bbp, collected by Biogeochemical-Argo (BGC-Argo) floats, matched up with satellite ocean color products. The present study aims at improving this method by 1) using a larger dataset from BGC-Argo network since 2016 for training, 2) using additional inputs such as altimetry data, which provide significant information on mesoscale processes impacting the vertical distribution of bbp, 3) improving the vertical resolution of estimation, and 4) examining the potential of alternative machine learning-based techniques. As a first attempt with the new data, we used some feature-specific preprocessing routines followed by a Multi-Output Random Forest algorithm on two regions with different ocean dynamics: North Atlantic and Subtropical Gyres. The statistics and the bbp profiles obtained from the validation floats show promising results and suggest this direction is worth investigating even further at global scale.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spyros Chaikalis ◽  
Constantine Parinos ◽  
Jürgen Möbius ◽  
Alexandra Gogou ◽  
Dimitris Velaoras ◽  
...  

A rich data set on particulate matter optical properties and parameters (beam attenuation coefficient, volume concentration, particle size and PSD slope), accompanied by measurements of biochemical indices (particulate organic carbon, particulate nitrogen and their stable isotopic composition) was obtained from the surface to deep waters across the Mediterranean Sea, in March-April 2018. A decrease of beam attenuation coefficients, total particle volume concentrations, particulate organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations was noted towards the eastern Mediterranean Sea (EMed) in comparison to the western Mediterranean Sea (WMed). LISST-derived optical properties were significantly correlated with water mass characteristics. Overall, the most turbid water mass identified in the Mediterranean Sea was the Surface Atlantic water (AW), and the most transparent was the Transitional Mediterranean Water (TMW) in the Cretan Sea, whereas a general decrease in particulate matter concentration is observed from the WMed towards the EMed. Relatively depleted δ13C-POC values in the particle pool of the open Mediterranean Sea can be attributed to contribution from terrestrial inputs, mainly via atmospheric deposition. Throughout the entire water column, a significant positive correlation between particle beam attenuation coefficient and particulate organic carbon concentration is observed in the open Mediterranean Sea. Such relationship suggests the predominance of organic particles with biogenic origin. POC concentration and particle median diameter D50 are significantly and negatively correlated both in the WMed and the EMed Sea, confirming that small particles are POC-rich. At depth, a prominent decrease of most measured parameters was observed, with the exception of particle median diameter that increased substantially in the EMed towards the deep sea, suggesting potentially enhanced aggregation processes. The low particle size distribution slope ξ observed in the EMed, corresponding to larger particle populations, supports the above notion. Basin-wide Rayleigh-type isotopic fractionation in vertical profiles of δ15N-PN across the Mediterranean Sea, underlines the differences in the trophic characters of the two sub-basins and highlights the role of circulation changes on biogeochemical parameters and the redistribution of particulate matter as a source of nutrients in the water column.


2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
Minhan Dai ◽  
Feifei Meng ◽  
Tiantian Tang ◽  
Shu-Ji Kao ◽  
Jianrong Lin ◽  
...  

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