Elizabeth C. Asher

Metabolic balance of coastal Antarctic waters revealed by autonomous pCO2 and ΔO2/Ar measurements

We use autonomous gas measurements to examine the metabolic balance (photosynthesis minus respiration) of coastal Antarctic waters during the spring/summer growth season. Our observations capture the development of a massive phytoplankton bloom and reveal striking variability in pCO2 and biological oxygen saturation (ΔO2/Ar) resulting from large shifts in community metabolism on time scales ranging from hours to weeks. Diel oscillations in surface gases are used to derive a high-resolution time series of net community production (NCP) that is consistent with 14C-based primary productivity estimates and with the observed seasonal evolution of phytoplankton biomass. A combination of physical mixing, grazing, and light availability appears to drive variability in coastal Antarctic NCP, leading to strong shifts between net autotrophy and heterotrophy on various time scales. Our approach provides insight into the metabolic responses of polar ocean ecosystems to environmental forcing and could be employed to autonomously detect climate-dependent changes in marine primary productivity.

The imbalance of new and export production in the western Antarctic Peninsula, a potentially “leaky” ecosystem

To quantify the balance between new production and vertical nitrogen export of sinking particles, we measured nitrate uptake, net nitrate drawdown, ΔO2/Ar-based net community production, sediment trap flux, and 234Th export at a coastal site near Palmer Station, Antarctica, during the phytoplankton growing season from October 2012 to March 2013. We also measured nitrate uptake and 234Th export throughout the northern western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) region on a cruise in January 2013. We used a nonsteady state 234Th equation with temporally varying upwelling rates and an irradiance-based phytoplankton production model to correct our export and new production estimates in the complex coastal site near Palmer Station. Results unequivocally showed that nitrate uptake and net community production were significantly greater than the sinking particle export on region-wide spatial scales and season-long temporal scales. At our coastal site, new production (105 ± 17.4 mg N m−2 d−1, mean ± standard error) was 5.3 times greater than vertical nitrogen export (20.4 ± 2.4 mg N m−2 d−1). On the January cruise in the northern WAP, new production (47.9 ± 14.4 mg N m−2 d−1) was 2.4 times greater than export (19.9 ± 1.4 mg N m−2 d−1). Much of this imbalance can be attributed to diffusive losses of particulate nitrogen from the surface ocean due to diapycnal mixing, indicative of a “leaky” WAP ecosystem. If these diffusive losses are common in other systems where new production exceeds export, it may be necessary to revise current estimates of the oceans biological pump.

Concentrations and cycling of DMS, DMSP, and DMSO in coastal and offshore waters of the Subarctic Pacific during summer, 2010–2011

Concentrations of dimethylsulfide (DMS), measured in the Subarctic Pacific during summer 2010 and 2011, ranged from ∼1 to 40 nM, while dissolved dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) concentrations (range 13-23 nM) exceeded those of dissolved dimethyl sulfoniopropionate (DMSP) (range 1.3–8.8 nM). Particulate DMSP dominated the reduced sulfur pool, reaching maximum concentrations of 100 nM. Coastal and off shore waters exhibited similar overall DMS concentration ranges, but sea-air DMS fluxes were lower in the oceanic waters due to lower wind speeds. Surface DMS concentrations showed statistically significant correlations with various hydrographic variables including the upwelling intensity (r2 = 0.52, p < 0.001) and the Chlorophyll a/mixed layer depth ratio (r2 = 0.52, p < 0.001), but these relationships provided little predictive power at small scales. Stable isotope tracer experiments indicated that the DMSP cleavage pathway always exceeded the DMSO reduction pathway as a DMS source, leading to at least 85% more DMS production in each experiment. Gross DMS production rates were positively correlated with the upwelling intensity, while net rates of DMS production were significantly correlated to surface water DMS concentrations. This latter result suggests that our measurements captured dominant processes driving surface DMS accumulation across a coastal-oceanic gradient.