Abstract
Spatial and temporal patterns in the flux of sinking organic matter are central to the understanding of elemental dynamics and food-web energetics in the global ocean1–3. Heterotrophic bacteria have been shown to play a part in the decomposition of large, rapidly sinking organic particles within and below the euphotic zone4–8. These previous studies suggest that decomposition by attached bacteria can explain only a trivial fraction of the observed decrease in the flux of organic matter with increasing depth. We report here that free-living bacteria, rather than the particle-feeding zooplankton, are the principal mediators of particle decomposition in the central north Pacific gyre and the eutrophic Santa Monica basin. We suggest that bacterial growth in the mesopelagial gives rise to the large-scale production of fine (0.3–0.6 μm), non-sinking particles at the expense of large, rapidly sinking particles. Our results have implications for models of biogeochemical dynamics of organic particles and surface-reactive materials such as radionu-clides in the ocean's interior3,9.
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Cho, B., Azam, F. Major role of bacteria in biogeochemical fluxes in the ocean's interior. Nature 332, 441–443 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/332441a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/332441a0
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