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Oceanography

Sea snow microcosms

Nature volume 414, pages 495–498 (2001)Cite this article

Marine bacteria can respond to organic particles in sea water, creating hotspots of bacterial growth and carbon cycling. This microscale behaviour should be included in models of the oceanic carbon cycle.

Oceanographers exploring the ocean's carbon cycle, and its role in climate change, do so at a grand scale. Satellite measurements of ocean colour are used to infer carbon dioxide (CO2) assimilation into organic matter by photosynthetic organisms — a process known as carbon fixation. Instruments on ships and buoys assess how fast carbon is being fixed, what fraction is respired back by marine organisms to CO2, and what fraction of organic matter sinks into the deep ocean, isolating its carbon from air–sea exchange for millennia. These studies paint a broad-brush picture of carbon cycling in the oceans, but they cannot predict future changes — in response to increases in atmospheric CO2, for example.

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Figure 1: Marine snow.

D. C. SMITH

Figure 2: Carbon fluxes in the ocean involving marine snow.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, 93092-0202, California, USA

    Farooq Azam & Richard A. Long

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  1. Farooq Azam
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  2. Richard A. Long
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Correspondence to Farooq Azam.

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Azam, F., Long, R. Sea snow microcosms. Nature 414, 495–498 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35107174

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