Changes in partitioning of carbon amongst photosynthetic pico- and nano-plankton groups in the Sargasso Sea in response to changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation

Abstract

Picophytoplankton carbon biomass at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site from June 2004 to December 2010 was estimated from the direct calibration of cellular carbon content and forward light scatter (via flow cytometry). Seasonality and interannual dynamics of Prochlorococcus, Synechococcus and small eukaryotic algae (<12μm diameter) abundance, cellular carbon content (QC; particulate organic carbon; POC cell−1), and group-specific carbon biomass are reported. QC of individual taxa varied with depth and season by as much as an order of magnitude, roughly comparable to variability in abundance. During the time-series there were obvious shifts in the taxonomic distribution of photosynthetic carbon biomass; these interannual shifts in biomass were due to simultaneous changes in both QC and cell abundance. The observed pattern was not apparent from numerical abundance alone, highlighting the importance of QC measurements in place of using fixed conversion factors to better understand biological carbon dynamics. Changes in the phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) from positive to negative modes correlated with shifts in biomass between picocyanobacteria and small eukaryotic algae, respectively. Thus, shifts in algal community structure are inferred to be associated with changes in light intensity and implied nutrient supply via mixing (i.e., patterns in upper ocean stability). These observed changes in phytoplankton biomass partitioning were correlated with the important ocean carbon cycle parameters of export flux, mesopelagic transfer efficiency, and elemental stoichiometry. Importantly, interannual relationships between these parameters and algal biomass were detected only when QC was considered as variable.