Plankton Community Respiration and Particulate Organic Carbon in the Kuroshio East of Taiwan

Biological organic carbon production and consumption play a fundamental role in the understanding of organic carbon cycling in oceans. However, studies on them in the Kuroshio, the western boundary current in the North Pacific Ocean, are scarce. To better understand the variations of plankton commun...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chung-Chi Chen, Pei-Jie Meng, Chih-hao Hsieh, Sen Jan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-10-01
Series:Plants
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/11/21/2909
_version_ 1797466745698516992
author Chung-Chi Chen
Pei-Jie Meng
Chih-hao Hsieh
Sen Jan
author_facet Chung-Chi Chen
Pei-Jie Meng
Chih-hao Hsieh
Sen Jan
author_sort Chung-Chi Chen
collection DOAJ
description Biological organic carbon production and consumption play a fundamental role in the understanding of organic carbon cycling in oceans. However, studies on them in the Kuroshio, the western boundary current in the North Pacific Ocean, are scarce. To better understand the variations of plankton community respiration (CR) and particulate organic carbon (POC), eight cruises. which covered four seasons over a 2-year period, were surveyed across the Kuroshio at the KTV1 transect east of Taiwan. Spatially, a coastal uplift of isotherms (i.e., onshore lifting and offshore deepening) was observed along the KTV1 transect. During the uplift, the cold and nutrient-rich deep waters shoal to shallow water and enhance phytoplankton growth, resulting in higher values of phytoplankton, POC, and plankton CR on the onshore side. In this study, phytoplankton was dominated by picophytoplankton including <i>Prochlorococcus</i>, <i>Synechococcus</i>, and picoeukaryotes. Plankton CR was low, and its mean depth-normalized integrated rate (the upper 100 m water depth) ranged from 7.07 to 22.27 mg C m<sup>−3</sup> d<sup>−1</sup>, to which the picophytoplankton and heterotrophic bacteria contributed the most. The mean depth-normalized integrated value of POC ranged from 12.7 to 21.6 μg C L<sup>−1</sup>. POC is mainly associated with phytoplankton biomass with a mean carbon ratio of chlorophyll <i>a</i>/POC ≈ 1.03. All results suggest that plankton CR and POC variations may be associated with picoplankton dynamics in the Kuroshio.
first_indexed 2024-03-09T18:44:08Z
format Article
id doaj.art-70cb590b098b48abab7865f684ec2285
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2223-7747
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-09T18:44:08Z
publishDate 2022-10-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Plants
spelling doaj.art-70cb590b098b48abab7865f684ec22852023-11-24T06:25:03ZengMDPI AGPlants2223-77472022-10-011121290910.3390/plants11212909Plankton Community Respiration and Particulate Organic Carbon in the Kuroshio East of TaiwanChung-Chi Chen0Pei-Jie Meng1Chih-hao Hsieh2Sen Jan3Department of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, 88, Sec. 4, Ting-Chou Road, Taipei 11677, TaiwanGraduate Institute of Marine Biology, National Dong Hwa University, Checheng, Pingtung 94450, TaiwanInstitute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, TaiwanInstitute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, TaiwanBiological organic carbon production and consumption play a fundamental role in the understanding of organic carbon cycling in oceans. However, studies on them in the Kuroshio, the western boundary current in the North Pacific Ocean, are scarce. To better understand the variations of plankton community respiration (CR) and particulate organic carbon (POC), eight cruises. which covered four seasons over a 2-year period, were surveyed across the Kuroshio at the KTV1 transect east of Taiwan. Spatially, a coastal uplift of isotherms (i.e., onshore lifting and offshore deepening) was observed along the KTV1 transect. During the uplift, the cold and nutrient-rich deep waters shoal to shallow water and enhance phytoplankton growth, resulting in higher values of phytoplankton, POC, and plankton CR on the onshore side. In this study, phytoplankton was dominated by picophytoplankton including <i>Prochlorococcus</i>, <i>Synechococcus</i>, and picoeukaryotes. Plankton CR was low, and its mean depth-normalized integrated rate (the upper 100 m water depth) ranged from 7.07 to 22.27 mg C m<sup>−3</sup> d<sup>−1</sup>, to which the picophytoplankton and heterotrophic bacteria contributed the most. The mean depth-normalized integrated value of POC ranged from 12.7 to 21.6 μg C L<sup>−1</sup>. POC is mainly associated with phytoplankton biomass with a mean carbon ratio of chlorophyll <i>a</i>/POC ≈ 1.03. All results suggest that plankton CR and POC variations may be associated with picoplankton dynamics in the Kuroshio.https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/11/21/2909dissolved inorganic nutrientsparticulate organic carbonpicoeukaryotespicoplanktonplankton community respiration<i>Prochlorococcus</i>
spellingShingle Chung-Chi Chen
Pei-Jie Meng
Chih-hao Hsieh
Sen Jan
Plankton Community Respiration and Particulate Organic Carbon in the Kuroshio East of Taiwan
Plants
dissolved inorganic nutrients
particulate organic carbon
picoeukaryotes
picoplankton
plankton community respiration
<i>Prochlorococcus</i>
title Plankton Community Respiration and Particulate Organic Carbon in the Kuroshio East of Taiwan
title_full Plankton Community Respiration and Particulate Organic Carbon in the Kuroshio East of Taiwan
title_fullStr Plankton Community Respiration and Particulate Organic Carbon in the Kuroshio East of Taiwan
title_full_unstemmed Plankton Community Respiration and Particulate Organic Carbon in the Kuroshio East of Taiwan
title_short Plankton Community Respiration and Particulate Organic Carbon in the Kuroshio East of Taiwan
title_sort plankton community respiration and particulate organic carbon in the kuroshio east of taiwan
topic dissolved inorganic nutrients
particulate organic carbon
picoeukaryotes
picoplankton
plankton community respiration
<i>Prochlorococcus</i>
url https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/11/21/2909
work_keys_str_mv AT chungchichen planktoncommunityrespirationandparticulateorganiccarboninthekuroshioeastoftaiwan
AT peijiemeng planktoncommunityrespirationandparticulateorganiccarboninthekuroshioeastoftaiwan
AT chihhaohsieh planktoncommunityrespirationandparticulateorganiccarboninthekuroshioeastoftaiwan
AT senjan planktoncommunityrespirationandparticulateorganiccarboninthekuroshioeastoftaiwan