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Primary productivity at the time-series stations in the northwestern Pacific Ocean: is the subtropical station unproductive?

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Abstract

A comparative study of primary productivity in the northwestern Pacific Ocean was conducted at time-series stations K2 and S1 in the nutrient-rich subarctic gyre and oligotrophic subtropical gyre, respectively. The estimated annual means of net primary production (NPP) at the two stations were virtually identical: 292 mg C m−2 day−1 at K2 and 303 mg C m−2 day−1 at S1, whereas the annual mean of gross primary production (GPP) at S1 was 1.5 times that at K2. NPP was very much limited by the supply of nutrients, typified by nitrate at S1, although it was enhanced during winter due to mitigation of nutrient limitation. The NPP/GPP ratios were remarkably lower at S1 during the spring-to-autumn time interval than in winter. The reduced NPP/GPP ratio means that photosynthetically assimilated carbon was lost at a higher rate via respiration and extracellular release of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). The carbon loss (difference between GPP and NPP) was higher at S1 than at K2, probably because of the enhanced respiration due to the relatively high temperature throughout the year, as well as the enhanced DOC release by nutrient limitation. The released DOC should be accounted for as primary production, because it contributes to oceanic biogeochemistry in a manner similar to the photosynthesized compounds. Consequently, total primary production, the sum of NPP and DOC release, was higher at S1 than at K2.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge Dr. E.A. Laws for his valuable comments and suggestions on an earlier version of the manuscript. We thank the anonymous reviewers and editor for carefully reading our manuscript and giving useful comments. We are grateful to the officers and crew of R/V Mirai for their cooperation at sea. We thank the staffs of Marine Works Japan, Ltd. and Global Ocean Development, Inc. for their exceptional support of both sample collection and physical and chemical analyses during the cruises.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Geochemical Cycle Research, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 2-15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka, 237-0061, Japan

    Kazuhiko Matsumoto

  2. Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Osamu Abe

  3. Research and Development Center for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Japan

    Tetsuichi Fujiki

  4. Hydrospheric Atmospheric Research Center, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Chiho Sukigara & Yoshihisa Mino

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  1. Kazuhiko Matsumoto
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  5. Yoshihisa Mino
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Correspondence to Kazuhiko Matsumoto.

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Matsumoto, K., Abe, O., Fujiki, T. et al. Primary productivity at the time-series stations in the northwestern Pacific Ocean: is the subtropical station unproductive?. J Oceanogr 72, 359–371 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-016-0354-4

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