Particulate organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations and fluxes at time series station DYNAPROC

As the season proceeded, changes in the biochemical composition of the exported material were observed. The C/N ratio rose from 7.8 to 12. Increases of serine (10-28% of total proteins), total lipids (7-9 to 14-28% of POC) and reserve lipids (1-5 to 5-22% of total lipids) were noticeable, whereas total protein content in POC decreased (20-27 to 18-7%).

N-acetyl glucosamine, a tracer of fecal pellet flux, showed that zooplankton grazing was a major vector of downward export during the decaying bloom. Against this background pattern, episodic events specifically increased the flux, modifying the quality and the settling velocity of particles. Day/night signals in biotracers (POC, N-acetyl glucosamine, protein and chloroplast lipids) showed that zooplankton migrations were responsible for sedimentation of fresh material through fast sinking particles (V=170-180 m/d) at night.

Periodic signatures of re-processed material (high lipolysis and bacterial biomass indices) suggested that other zooplankton fecal pellets or small aggregates, probably of lower settling velocities (V<170 m/d), contributed to the flux during calm periods. At the beginning of the experiment, during the development of a prymnesiophyte bloom in the upper layers, the sterol signal with no periodicity enabled us to estimate high particle settling velocities (>=600 m/d) likely related to large aggregate formation.

A wind event increased biotracer fluxes (POC, protein, chloroplast lipids). The rapid transmission of surface signals through extremely fast sinking particles could be a general feature of particle fluxes in marine areas unaffected by horizontal advection.