Description: © The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Scientific Reports 7 (2017): 10129, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-10974-y.

Description: Transports of suspended particulate (POCsusp) and dissolved (DOC) organic carbon are inferred from a box-model covering the eastern boundary of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. Corresponding net respiration rates (R) are obtained from a net organic carbon budget that is based on the transport estimates, and includes both vertical and lateral fluxes. The overall R in the mesopelagic layer (100–1500 m) is 1.6 ± 0.4 mmol C m−2 d−1. DOC accounts for up to 53% of R as a result of drawdown of organic carbon within Eastern North Atlantic Central Water (ENACW) that is entrained into sinking Mediterranean Overflow Water (MOW) that leads to formation of Mediterranean water (MW) at intermediate depths (~900 m). DOC represents 90% of the respired non-sinking organic carbon. When converted into oxygen units, the computed net respiration rate represents less than half the oxygen utilization rates (OUR) reported for the mesopelagic waters of the subtropical North Atlantic. Mesoscale processes in the area, not quantified with our approach, could account in part for the OUR differences observed between our carbon budget and other published studies from the North Atlantic, although seasonal or interannual variability could also be responsible for the difference in the estimates.

Description: This research was supported by projects ORCA (CTM2005-04701-CO2-01), Malaspina (CSD2008-00077), HOTMIX (CTM2011-30010-C02) and FLUXES (CTM2015-69392-C3), financed by the Spanish “Plan Nacional de I + D”. YSF was supported by a Spanish fellowship from the Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y Sociedad de la Información (ACIISI). EM has been partially supported by the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) MedSUB project, and a post-doctoral grant from the Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura i Universitats del Govern de les Illes Balears (Mallorca, Spain) and the European Social Fund.

Description: Pigment concentration and pigment-based phytoplankton community composition data from a KOSMOS mesocosm experiment carried out in the frame work of the Ocean Artificial Upwelling project. The experiment was performed in the North-East Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Gran Canaria in autumn 2018 and lasted for 39 days. In this study we investigated the effect of different intensities of artificial upwelling combined with two upwelling modes (recurring additions versus one singular addition) on the phytoplankton community. Filters were analysed for a range of photosynthetic pigments using reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Based on pigment concentrations, phytoplankton community composition was approximated using the CHEMTAX software with the original pigment ratios from Mackey et al (1996, doi:10.3354/meps144265). The input included Chl a, b, c2, and c3, peridinin, 19'-butanoyloxyfucoxanthin, fucoxanthin, neoxanthin, prasinoxanthin, violaxanthin, 19'-hexanoyloxyfucoxanthin, alloxanthin, diadinoxanthin, diatoxanthin and zeaxanthin. Divinyl Chl a was instead fully associated with Prochlorophyceae. The presence of the main phytoplankton groups is expressed in Chl a equivalents.

Description: Size fractionated primary productivity rate measurements through 14C radioisotope incorporation rates from a KOSMOS mesocosm experiment carried out in the frame work of the Ocean Artificial Upwelling project. The experiment was performed in the North-East Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Gran Canaria in autumn 2018 and lasted for 39 days. In this study we investigated the effect of different intensities of artificial upwelling combined with two upwelling modes (recurring additions versus one singular addition) on the phytoplankton community. Data shown includes production rates of dissolved organic carbon, particulate organic carbon in 3 size fractions (0.2-2 µm, 2-20 µm, 〉20 µm) and total organic carbon.

Description: Oxygen production and respiration rates from a KOSMOS mesocosm experiment carried out in the framework of the Ocean Artificial Upwelling project. The experiment was performed in the North-East Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Gran Canaria in autumn 2018 and lasted for 39 days. In this study we investigated the effect of different intensities of artificial upwelling combined with two upwelling modes (recurring additions versus one singular addition) on the phytoplankton community. Data shown includes gross and net community production as well as community respiration in µmol O2 per liter and hour/day. Measured through incubations and Winkler titrations.

Description: Recent evidence that dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is a significant component of the organic carbon flux below the photic layer of the ocean (1), together with verification of high respiration rates in the dark ocean (2), suggests that the downward flux of DOC may play a major role in supporting respiration there. Here we show, on the basis of examination of the relation between DOC and apparent oxygen utilization (AOU), that the DOC flux supports ~10% of the respiration in the dark ocean. The contribution of DOC to pelagic respiration below the surface mixed layer can be inferred from the relation between DOC and apparent oxygen utilization (AOU, µM O2), a variable quantifying the cumulative oxygen consumption since a water parcel was last in contact with the atmosphere. However, assessments of DOC/AOU relations have been limited to specific regions of the ocean (3, 4) and have not considered the global ocean. We assembled a large data set (N = 9824) of concurrent DOC and AOU observations collected in cruises conducted throughout the world's oceans (fig. S1, table S1) to examine the relative contribution of DOC to AOU and, therefore, respiration in the dark ocean. AOU increased from an average (±SE) 96.3 ± 2.0 µM at the base of the surface mixed layer (100 m) to 165.5 ± 4.3 µM at the bottom of the main thermocline (1000 m), with a parallel decline in the average DOC from 53.5 ± 0.2 to 43.4 ± 0.3 µM C (Fig. 1). In contrast, there is no significant decline in DOC with increasing depth beyond 1000 m depth (Fig. 1), indicating that DOC exported with overturning circulation plays a minor role in supporting respiration in the ocean interior (5). Assuming a molar respiratory quotient of 0.69, the decline in DOC accounts for 19.6 ± 0.4% of the AOU within the top 1000 m (Fig. 1). This estimate represents, however, an upper limit, because the correlation between DOC and AOU is partly due to mixing of DOC-rich warm surface waters with DOC-poor cold thermocline waters (6). Removal of this effect by regressing DOC against AOU and water temperature indicates that DOC supports only 8.4 ± 0.3% of the respiration in the mesopelagic waters.