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Impact of mesoscale eddies on particulate organic carbon flux in the western subarctic North Pacific

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Abstract

The mechanism that controls particulate organic carbon (POC) flux in the deep sea differs depending on the season and sea. The POC produced in the western subarctic North Pacific are known to be transported to the deep sea efficiently, but the direct relationship between the POC flux and physical processes is still unclear. In this study, we evaluated the effect of mesoscale eddies on POC flux in the western subarctic North Pacific. The seasonal and interannual variabilities of POC flux were investigated using data from a time-series sediment trap deployed at 4810 m at station K2 (47°N, 160°E) from 2005 to 2018. POC flux was high during May–November, appearing to reflect spring and fall blooms at the ocean surface. POC flux also showed interannual variability, with twelve peaks that were mostly affected by enhanced bloom just before the peak. Nine peaks of the twelve peaks were affected by mesoscale eddies, which enhanced bloom around K2 by extending the area with a high chlorophyll-a concentration along the coastal region into the offshore region, suggesting that mesoscale eddies strongly impact the interannual variability of POC flux at K2.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Akihide Kasai and Toru Hirawake for helpful comments. We are grateful to authors in Fujiki et al. (2014) and Matsumoto et al. (2014) for kindly providing us their measurement data. We also thank the officers and crew of the research vessel MIRAI for their assistance with sample collection and analysis of the sediment trap system. The revised manuscript has been greatly improved by constructive comments from two anonymous reviewers.

Funding

This study was funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology (Grant Number: JP15H05822, JP16H01584, JP18H04144 and JP19H05667).

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  1. Ryo Dobashi

    Present address: Department of Oceanography, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, 1000 Pope Road, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences/Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, 3-1-1, Minato-cho, Hakodate, 041-8611, Japan

    Ryo Dobashi, Hiromichi Ueno & Isao Fujita

  2. Graduate School of Environmental Sciences, Hokkaido University, Kita-10, Nishi-5, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-0810, Japan

    Nozomi Matsudera

  3. Research Institute for Global Change, JAMSTEC, 2-15, Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka, 237-0061, Japan

    Tetsuichi Fujiki, Makio C. Honda & Naomi Harada

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  1. Ryo Dobashi
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Correspondence to Ryo Dobashi.

Supplementary Information

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10872_2021_620_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Supplementary file 1: Fig. 1 As described for Fig. 5 but for 15 April 2014. Fig. 2 As described for Fig. 5 but for (a) 15 May 2008 and (b) 15 June 2016 (PDF 217 KB)

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Dobashi, R., Ueno, H., Matsudera, N. et al. Impact of mesoscale eddies on particulate organic carbon flux in the western subarctic North Pacific. J Oceanogr 78, 1–14 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-021-00620-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10872-021-00620-7

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