Not logged in
PANGAEA.
Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science

Kiko, Rainer; Brandt, Peter; Cravatte, Sophie; Hauss, Helena; Hummels, Rebecca; Krahmann, Gerd; Marin, Frédéric; McDonnell, Andrew; Picheral, Marc; Vandromme, Pieter; Thurnherr, Andreas M; Stemmann, Lars (2017): Biological and physical influences on marine snowfall at the equator - data collection [dataset publication series]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.874873, Supplement to: Kiko, Rainer; Biastoch, Arne; Brandt, Peter; Cravatte, Sophie; Hauss, Helena; Hummels, Rebecca; Kriest, Iris; Marin, Frédéric; McDonnell, Andrew; Oschlies, Andreas; Picheral, Marc; Schwarzkopf, Franziska; Thurnherr, Andreas M; Stemmann, Lars (2017): Biological and physical influences on marine snowfall at the equator. Nature Geoscience, https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO3042

Always quote citation above when using data! You can download the citation in several formats below.

RIS CitationBibTeX CitationShow MapGoogle Earth

Abstract:
High primary productivity in the equatorial Atlantic and Pacific oceans is one of the key features of tropical ocean biogeochemistry and fuels a substantial flux of particulate matter towards the abyssal ocean. How biological processes and equatorial current dynamics shape the particle size distribution and flux, however, is poorly understood. Here we use high-resolution size-resolved particle imaging and Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler data to assess these influences in equatorial oceans. We find an increase in particle abundance and flux at depths of 300 to 600 m at the Atlantic and Pacific equator, a depth range to which zooplankton and nekton migrate vertically in a daily cycle. We attribute this particle maximum to faecal pellet production by these organisms. At depths of 1,000 to 4,000 m, we find that the particulate organic carbon flux is up to three times greater in the equatorial belt (1° S–1° N) than in off-equatorial regions. At 3,000 m, the flux is dominated by small particles less than 0.53 mm in diameter. The dominance of small particles seems to be caused by enhanced active and passive particle export in this region, as well as by the focusing of particles by deep eastward jets found at 2° N and 2° S. We thus suggest that zooplankton movements and ocean currents modulate the transfer of particulate carbon from the surface to the deep ocean.
Related to:
Brandt, Peter; Krahmann, Gerd (2017): Lowered ADCP data during METEOR cruise M119. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.877351
Hummels, Rebecca; Brandt, Peter; Kiko, Rainer (2017): ADCP backscatter measurements during Maria S. Merian cruise MSM22. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.882532
Hummels, Rebecca; Brandt, Peter; Kiko, Rainer (2018): ADCP backscatter measurements during METEOR cruise M106. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.887783
Hummels, Rebecca; Brandt, Peter; Kiko, Rainer (2018): ADCP backscatter measurements during METEOR cruise M119. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.887784
Krahmann, Gerd (2015): Lowered ADCP data during Maria S. Merian cruise MSM22. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.846763
Krahmann, Gerd (2016): Lowered ADCP data during METEOR cruise M106. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.869634
Picheral, Marc; Searson, Sarah; Taillandier, V; Bricaud, Annick; Boss, Emmanuel; Stemmann, Lars; Gorsky, G; Tara Oceans Consortium, Coordinators; Tara Oceans Expedition, Participants (2014): Vertical profiles of environmental parameters measured from physical, optical and imaging sensors during Tara Oceans expedition 2009-2013. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.836321
Project(s):
Climate - Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean (SFB754)
Funding:
German Research Foundation (DFG), grant/award no. 27542298: Climate - Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean
Coverage:
Median Latitude: 0.984921 * Median Longitude: -122.128026 * South-bound Latitude: -19.975833 * West-bound Longitude: 147.691000 * North-bound Latitude: 18.499967 * East-bound Longitude: -19.683300
Date/Time Start: 2012-10-24T19:39:00 * Date/Time End: 2015-09-26T12:41:00
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC-BY-3.0)
Size:
8 datasets

Download Data

Download ZIP file containing all datasets as tab-delimited text — use the following character encoding:

Datasets listed in this publication series

  1. Eldin, G (2017): SADCP 38 kHz backscatter of L Atalante cruise Cassiopee. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.880743
  2. Marin, F (2017): Lowered ADCP data during L Atalante cruise Cassiopee. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.882516
  3. Cravatte, S; Marin, F; Stemmann, L et al. (2017): Abundance of particles measured by underwater vision profiler (UVP5) during L'Atalante cruise Cassiopee. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.876216
  4. Kiko, R; Hauss, H; Picheral, M et al. (2017): Abundance of particles measured with an underwater vision profiler 5 (UVP5) during METEOR cruise M106. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.874870
  5. Kiko, R (2017): Abundance of particles measured with an underwater vision profiler 5 (UVP5) during METEOR cruise M119. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.874872
  6. Kiko, R; Hauss, H; Picheral, M et al. (2017): Abundance of particles measured with an underwater vision profiler 5 (UVP5) during Maria S. Merian cruise MSM22. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.874871
  7. Eldin, G (2017): SADCP 75 kHz backscatter of Ron Brown cruise 33RO20150410. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.880745
  8. McDonnell, A (2017): Abundance of particles measured with an underwater vision profiler 5 (UVP5) during Ronald H. Brown cruise 33RO20150410. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.874875