Premium
Potential export of unattached benthic macroalgae to the deep sea through wind‐driven Langmuir circulation
Author(s) -
Dierssen H. M.,
Zimmerman R. C.,
Drake L. A.,
Burdige D. J.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2008gl036188
Subject(s) - oceanography , benthic zone , phytoplankton , environmental science , pelagic zone , deep sea , seafloor spreading , biomass (ecology) , carbon cycle , total organic carbon , flux (metallurgy) , geology , ecosystem , ecology , biology , nutrient , chemistry , organic chemistry
Carbon export to the deep sea is conventionally attributed to the sinking of open ocean phytoplankton. Here, we report a Langmuir supercell event driven by high winds across the shallow Great Bahama Bank that organized benthic non‐attached macroalgae, Colpomenia sp. , into visible windrows on the seafloor. Ocean color satellite imagery obtained before and after the windrows revealed a 588 km 2 patch that rapidly shifted from highly productive macroalgae to bare sand. We assess a number of possible fates for this macroalgae and contend that this event potentially transported negatively buoyant macroalgae to the deep Tongue of the Ocean in a pulsed export of >7 × 10 10 g of carbon. This is equivalent to the daily carbon flux of phytoplankton biomass in the pelagic tropical North Atlantic and 0.2–0.8% of daily carbon flux from the global ocean. Coastal banks and bays are highly productive ecosystems that may contribute substantially to carbon export to the deep sea.