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. 2024 Dec 18;11(1):1392.
doi: 10.1038/s41597-024-04151-w.

Active and passive organic carbon fluxes during a bloom in the Southern Ocean (South Georgia)

William Major  1 , Sarah L C Giering  2 , Joanna Ainsworth  3 , Anna Belcher  4   5 , Sabena Blackbird  6 , Martin Bridger  2 , Nathan Briggs  2 , Filipa Carvalho  2 , Louis Clément  2 , Kathryn Cook  2   7 , Cynthia Dumousseaud  3 , Benoit Espinola  8 , Claire Evans  2 , Sophie Fielding  4 , Manuela Hartmann  2 , Stephanie Henson  2 , Morten Iversen  9 , Konstadinos Kiriakoulakis  10 , Richard Lampitt  2 , Elisa Lovecchio  2 , Adrian Martin  2 , Dan Mayor  2   7 , Mark Moore  3 , Katsiaryna Pabortsava  2 , Corinne Pebody  2 , Kate Peel  2 , Calum Preece  6 , Alex Poulton  11 , Rachel Rayne  3 , Kevin Saw  2 , Mark Stinchcombe  2 , Gabriele Stowasser  4 , Geraint A Tarling  4 , Sandy Thomalla  12 , María Villa-Alfageme  13 , George A Wolff  6 , Richard Sanders  2   14
Affiliations

Active and passive organic carbon fluxes during a bloom in the Southern Ocean (South Georgia)

William Major et al. Sci Data. .

Abstract

The Controls Over Mesopelagic Interior Carbon Storage (COMICS) cruise DY086 took place aboard the RRS Discovery in the South Atlantic during November and December, 2017. Physical, chemical, biogeochemical and biological data were collected during three visits to ocean observatory station P3, off the coast of South Georgia, during an austral spring bloom. A diverse range of equipment including CTD-rosette, Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), net deployments, marine snow catchers (MSCs), Stand Alone Pump System (SAPS) and PELAGRA Sediment Traps were used to produce a comprehensive, high-quality dataset. The data can provide excellent insight into regional biological carbon pump (BCP) processes; it is recommended for use by observational scientists and modellers to enhance understanding of ecosystem interactions relating to mesopelagic carbon storage.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The COMICS project (NERC NE/M020835/2) funded the data collection effort and data synthesis and submission was funded by the Sustainable Management of Mesopelagic Resources (SUMMER) project under grant agreement No 817806. The simultaenous glider mission was supported by a European Research Council Consolidator grant (GOCART, agreement number 724416) to S. Henson, as well as South Africa’s Department of Science and Innovation (DST/CON0182/2017) and the National Research Foundation (SANAP: SNA170522231782) grants; as such, these data are published separately. There is no conflict of interest in submitting this paper for consideration.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A map of the collection region: Long-term observation station ‘P3’ (52.4 °S, 40.1°W) in the vicinity of South Georgia.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Levels of processing and data cleaning in attenuation profiles from P3A displaying (a) raw data, (b) the removal of the CTD ‘dip’ (b) which clearly demonstrates the difference in data between the titanium (CTD004 and CTD007) and stainless steel (all others) rosettes, and (c) all profiles with deepest values subtracted to normalise the data between rosettes.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Temperature-salinity plots across the three P3 site visits for individual CTD profiles. Grey lines denote Sigma-Theta density intervals. CTD profiles 1, 11, 12, 13, 14 and were taken at non-P3 sites and are thus not included.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Satellite primary productivity (mg C m−2 d−1) at site P3 across November and December, 2017, with the three visits to the site made by RRS Discovery highlighted in grey.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Chlorophyll-a plots across the three P3 site visits for individual CTD profiles. There is a decreasing trend in surface-level chlorophyll-a from P3A to P3C as the austral spring bloom subsides.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Profiles of zooplankton biomass. Zooplankton biomass was collected with Bongo (a,c,f), MOCNESS (d,g) and RMT25 (b,e,h) across the three P3 site visits. MOCNESS and RMT25 nets were deployed at night (blue) and day (red), but Bongo was deployed during daytime only. MOCNESS was not deployed at P3A. Reproduced after.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Acoustic backscatter profiles at 38 kHz across two P3 site visits. Data were separated into night (blue) and day (red). Acoustic backscatter consistently shows little to no evidence of diel vertical migration. No acoustic data were available for site visit P3C.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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