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Bentho-Pelagic Coupling and Carbon Dynamics in the Northern North Atlantic

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The Northern North Atlantic

Abstract

Benthic communities below the euphotic zone are strictly dependent on food supply through the water column, with only few exceptions at hot vents and cold seeps. The magnitude of this supply of organic carbon is mainly determined by temporal and spatial patterns of the export flux of pelagic primary production from the euphotic zone. In contrast to the northern Pacific, where a sequence of ecosystems exists along a latitudinal gradient, in the Greenland-Iceland-Norwegian Seas (GIN Seas) north ofIceland two very different pelagic environments are present: export regimes are separated meridionally and exposed to the same external forcing of solar radiation. At the eastern boundary of the GIN Seas the influence of the Gulf Stream results in an environment similar to that found at lower latitudes and is well documented for biological processes in the water column (v. Bodungen et al. 1995) and at the seafloor (Graf et al. 1995). Seasonal ice-cover together with hydrographic and nutrient conditions define the continental margin of East Greenland as a typical polar environment.

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  1. Sap AG, Neurottstrasse 16, 69190, Walldorf, Germany

    Will Ritzrau & Annette Scheltz

  2. Institute for Biology, Rostock University, Frei1igrathstrasse 7-8, 18055, Rostock, Germany

    Gerhard Graf

  3. GEOMAR, Research Center for Marine Geosciences, Kiel University, Wischhofstrasse 1-3, 24148, Kiel, Germany

    Wolfgang Queisser

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  1. Will Ritzrau
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  1. Institute for Geosciences, University of Kiel, Olshausenstraße 40, 24118, Kiel, Germany

    Priska Schäfer

  2. St. Ilgener Straße 2, 69190, Walldorf, Germany

    Will Ritzrau

  3. Polar and Marine Research, Alfred Wegener Institute, Columbusstraße, 27568, Bremerhaven, Germany

    Michael Schlüter  & Jörn Thiede  & 

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Ritzrau, W., Graf, G., Scheltz, A., Queisser, W. (2001). Bentho-Pelagic Coupling and Carbon Dynamics in the Northern North Atlantic. In: Schäfer, P., Ritzrau, W., Schlüter, M., Thiede, J. (eds) The Northern North Atlantic. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-56876-3_13

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