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Overlooked contribution of the biological pump to the Pacific Arctic nitrogen deficit

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Abstract

The nutrient-rich Pacific Ocean seawater that flows through the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea is generally considered to be the most important source of nutrients to the Arctic euphotic zone. The inflow is characterized by nitrogen deficit and low nitrate/phosphate (N/P) ratios; this is ascribed to sedimentary denitrification on the Chukchi shelf by preoccupant opinions. However, the Chukchi Sea also has high primary production, which raises the question of whether the biological pump may also significantly modulate nutrient properties of the throughflow. Here, we show that nitrate concentrations of the Pacific inflow gradually decrease northward in association with notable biological utilization. The phytoplankton N/P uptake ratio was 8.8±2.27, higher than the N/P ratio of Pacific inflow water (5–6). This uptake ratio, in combination with efficient vertical nitrogen export, serves to preferentially remove nitrogen (relative to phosphorus) from upper waters, thereby further intensifying the Arctic nitrogen deficit. Accordingly, as large as about 111.7×109 mol N yr−1 of nitrate was extra consumed, according to the real N/P uptake ratio rather than the ratio of the Pacific inflow, which may be as great as half the nitrogen loss ascribed to sedimentary denitrification. Our findings suggest that besides sedimentary denitrification, biological disproportionate utilization of nutrients in the Chukchi Sea upper water is another important contributor to the nitrogen limitation and excess phosphorus in the upper Arctic Ocean. In the rapid Arctic change era, the predicted reinforced biological carbon pump could further impact the nutrient dynamics and biogeochemical process of the Arctic Ocean.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the captain and crew of the R/V Xuelong icebreaker for their assistance with sample collection during the two cruises. We thank Professor J. P. Zhao (Ocean University of China) and the physical oceanography teams for their acquisition and sharing of the hydrographic (CTD) data. We also thank F. J. Chen (Guang Dong Ocean University) for detecting δ 15 N of sinking particles samples. We thank Reiner Schlitzer and his group for sharing the Ocean Data View graphics program ( http://www.odv.awi.de ). We thank Tonya Clayton for her professional help with English language editing. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41003036 & 41941013), the Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition Project (CHINARE), the Cai Yuanpei Program, and the ICAR Project (China Scholarship Council).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Ecosystem Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Hangzhou, 310012, China

    Hongliang Li, Jianfang Chen, Jingjing Zhang, Haiyan Jin, Youcheng Bai, Jian Ren & Yangjie Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Hangzhou, 310012, China

    Jianfang Chen

  3. Sorbonne Universités (UPMC, Université Paris 06)-CNRS-IRD-MNHN, LOCEAN Laboratory, 4 Place Jussieu, Paris, F-75005, France

    Diana Ruiz-Pino

  4. Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai, 519080, China

    Jingjing Zhang

  5. Polar and Marine Research Institute, Jimei University, Xiamen, 361021, China

    Yanpei Zhuang

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  1. Hongliang Li
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Correspondence to Jianfang Chen.

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Li, H., Chen, J., Ruiz-Pino, D. et al. Overlooked contribution of the biological pump to the Pacific Arctic nitrogen deficit. Sci. China Earth Sci. 65, 1477–1489 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-021-9916-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-021-9916-1

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