Abstract. Because of its temperate location, high dynamic range of environmental conditions, and extensive human activity, the long-term ecological research site in the coastal Northeastern US Shelf (NES) of the northwestern Atlantic Ocean offers an ideal opportunity to understand how productivity shifts in response to changes in planktonic community composition. Ocean production and trophic transfer rates, including net community production (NCP), net primary production (NPP), gross oxygen production (GOP), and microzooplankton grazing rates, are key metrics for understanding marine ecosystem dynamics and associated impacts on biogeochemical cycles. Although small phytoplankton usually dominate phytoplankton community composition and Chl a concentration in the NES waters during the summer, in August 2019, a bloom of the large diatom genus Hemiaulus, with N2-fixing symbionts, was observed in the mid-shelf region. NCP was 2.5 to 9 times higher when Hemiaulus dominated phytoplankton carbon compared to NCP throughout the same geographic area during the summers of 2020–2022. The Hemiaulus bloom in summer 2019 also coincided with higher trophic transfer efficiency from phytoplankton to microzooplankton and higher GOP and NPP than in the summers 2020–2022. This study suggests that the dominance of an atypical phytoplankton community that alters the typical size distribution of primary producers can significantly influence productivity and trophic transfer, highlighting the dynamic nature of the coastal ocean. Notably, summer 2018 NCP levels were also high, although the size distribution of Chl a was typical and an atypical phytoplankton community was not observed. A better understanding of the dynamics of the NES in terms of biological productivity is of primary importance, especially in the context of changing environmental conditions due to climate processes.
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Design Update to “The Pressure of In-Situ Gases Instrument (PIGI) for Autonomous Shipboard Measurement of Dissolved O2 and N2 in Surface Ocean Waters”
Measuring net community production (NCP) is a challenging, yet important, aspect of oceanography. Methods based on discrete sample collection often have low spatial and temporal resolution, while expensive instruments are required to obtain continuous NCP measurements at high resolution. To address these issues, Izett and Tortell (2020) created a novel, autonomous system called the Pressure of In-situ Gases Instrument (PIGI) and shared their design with the community. The system yields high-resolution surface water O2 and N2 measurements that are used to estimate NCP along a ship transect or at a fixed field station. This article provides a description of an updated PIGI system that was tested in a series of cruises in the coastal South Atlantic Bight (SAB). The data collected suggest that it performs equally as well as the original, providing high spatial resolution NCP measurements. Unfortunately, we believe that the SAB coastal and estuaries violate the steady state assumption due to horizontal mixing driven by tidal forces. Thus, we cannot recommend the PIGI system for use in the coastal SAB, but we encourage its use in open ocean waters that do not violate the assumptions on which this system was built. We document the updates to the PIGI system, share tips and tricks on its use, and discuss the data collected.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2114584
- PAR ID:
- 10601285
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oceanography
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Oceanography
- Volume:
- 37
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 1042-8275
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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