Minor Contribution by Biomineralizing Phytoplankton to Surface Ocean Biomineral Pools in the Late Stratified Period

Abstract

Vertical distributions of biogenic silica (bSi), particulate inorganic carbon (PIC) and key biomineral-forming phytoplankton indicate vertical zoning, or partitioning, during the late summer stratified period in the northeast Atlantic. Coccolithophores were generally more numerous in the surface mixed layer, whilst PIC concentrations were more homogenous with depth throughout the euphotic zone. Diatoms were notably more abundant and more diverse in the lower euphotic zone beneath the mixed layer in association with subsurface maxima in chlorophyll-a, bSi and oxygen concentrations. The four dominant coccolithophore species (Emiliania huxleyi, Gephyrocapsa muellerae, Syracosphera spp., and Rhabdosphaera clavigera) represented 78 ± 20% (range 31–100%) of the observed community across all sampled depths yet simultaneously contributed an average of only 13% to measured PIC pools. The diatom community, which was dominated by Pseudo-nitzschia spp. and by a species tentatively identified as Nanoneis longta, represented only ~1% of the bSi pool on average, with contributions increasing within the chlorophyll maximum. Despite a slow gradual deepening of the surface mixed layer in the period prior to observation, and adequate nutrient availability beneath the mixed layer, biomineral pools at this time consisted largely of detrital rather than cellular material.