Sinking particulates

Benitez-Nelson, C. R., Madden, L. P. O., Styles, R. M., Thunell, R. C., and Astor, Y. (2007). Inorganic and organic sinking particulate phosphorus fluxes across the oxic/anoxic water column of Cariaco Basin, Venezuela. Mar. Chem. 105,90-100. 

Gage and Tyler (1991) stated that fungi, as prominent heterotrophic organisms in the oceans, are transported passively from the surface to the deep sea by rapidly sinking water masses in the Arctic and Antarctic regions and/or by attachment to sinking particulate substrate (Van Uden Fell, 1968 Kohlmeyer Kohlmeyer, 1979). Several substrates, such as wood, particulate organic matter, or chitin from the exoskeleton of... 

Van Mooy, B. A. S., Keil, R. G., and Devol, A. H. (2002). Impact of suboxia on sinking particulate organic carbon Enhanced carbon flux and preferential degradation of amino acids via denitrification. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta. 66, 457 65. 

Figure 16.5 A conceptualized view of the new versus regenerated N model based on the classic work of Dugdale and Goering (1967). Shown are two contrasting marine ecosystems (Left) an upwelling habitat where allochthonous NO3 -supported new production dominates total primary productivity, and (Right) an open ocean habitat where locally produced NH4+-supported regenerated production dominates total primary productivity. New production-intensive biomes also support much greater export per unit area, usually in the form of sinking particulate matter, than remineralization-intensive systems like the North Pacific trades biome.

Merrill, J. Z. (1999). Tidal freshwater marshes as nutrient sinks Particulate nutrient burial and denitrification. Doctoral dissertation. University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA. 

Beyond these upper ocean processes, poorly understood phenomena alter the of sinking nitrogen during transit through the water column and burial. In a variety of oceanographic settings, sinking particulate has been observed to... 

Lourey, M. J., Trull, T. W., and Sigman, D. M. (2003). Sensitivity of delta N-15 of nitrate, surface suspended and deep sinking particulate nitrogen to seasonal nitrate depletion in the Southern Ocean. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 17(3), doi 10.1029/2002GB001973. 

Frew, R. D., Hutchins, D. A., Nodder, S., Sanudo-Wilhelmy, S., Tovar- Sanchez, A., Leblanc, K., Hare, C. E., and Boyd, P. W. (2006). Suspended and sinking particulate iron dynamics during fecycle in subantarctic waters SE of New Zealand. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 20, GB1S93, doi 10.1029/2005GB002558. 

Using solid-state NMR the chemical structure of organic carbon in both surface plankton and sinking particulate matter from the Pacific Ocean and the Arabian Sea has been characterized. ... 

Deep seafloor communities are shaped by a number of key parameters that directly affect the nature and abundance of living organisms and their interactions with seafloor geochemistry. These parameters include (a) substratum type, (b) near-bottom hydrodynamic regime, (c) bottom-water oxygen concentration, (d) sinking particulate-organic-carbon (POC) flux, and (e) sediment redox conditions. Below, we describe these parameters and their variation in the northeastern abyssal Pacific. 

Scavenged type Trace metals such as Al, Co, Ce, and Bi, show surface enrichment and depletion in deep waters, in contrast to the opposite trend in nutrient types. These elements are highly particle-reactive and are rapidly removed from the water column by sinking particulate matter and/or by scavenging at the sediment-water interface. Their mean oceanic residence times are short (<10 -10 years). Interoceanic variations in their concentration can be large (e.g., Atlantic/Pacific concentration ratio 40 for Al) depending on kinetic balance between supply and removal for the specific basins. 

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