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Vertical transport of organic materials in the northern North Pacific as determined by sediment trap experiment

Part 1. Fatty acid composition

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Abstract

Sediment traps were deployed at 5 depths of 100 through 5,250 m to collect suspended sediments in the northern North Pacific (47°51.1'N; 176°20.6'E, 5,300 m deep) in the summer of 1978. Fatty acid composition was determined in the samples of phytoplankton, particulate matter, trap sediment and bottom sediment.

Fatty acid composition of the trap sediments revealed no significant vertical trend throughout the water column from depths of 100 to 5,250 m, and were also similar to those of the phytoplankton and the particulate matter from the euphotic layer. However, a marked difference in the fatty acid composition was observed between the trap sediments and the particulate matter from deep waters. Therefore, it can be concluded that the source of fatty acids in the trap sediments is the particulate matter from the euphotic layer but not from deep waters.

Unsaturated fatty acids highly susceptible to biological agents were rather abundant in the trap sediments as well as in the phytoplankton and particulate matter from the euphotic layer, however no unsaturated fatty acid was found in the particulate matter from deep waters. From these findings, it is clear that the particulate matter of the euphotic layer is transported to deep waters very rapidly. As the sinking rate of fecal pellets produced by zooplankton is in the range of ten to hundreds of meters a day, fecal pellets are assumed to be the most likely carrier of rapid-transport of organic matter including fatty acids from the euphotic layer to deep waters.

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  1. Water Research Institute, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, 464, Nagoya, Japan

    Eiichiro Tanoue & Nobuhiko Handa

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  1. Eiichiro Tanoue
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  2. Nobuhiko Handa
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Tanoue, E., Handa, N. Vertical transport of organic materials in the northern North Pacific as determined by sediment trap experiment. Journal of the Oceanographical Society of Japan 36, 231–245 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02072124

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