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Magnitude of nitrate turbulent diffusion in contrasting marine environments

Magnitude of nitrate turbulent diffusion in contrasting marine environments
Magnitude of nitrate turbulent diffusion in contrasting marine environments
Difficulties to quantify ocean turbulence have limited our knowledge about the magnitude and variability of nitrate turbulent diffusion, which constitutes one of the main processes responsible for the supply of nitrogen to phytoplankton inhabiting the euphotic zone. We use an extensive dataset of microturbulence observations collected in contrasting oceanic regions, to build a model for nitrate diffusion into the euphotic zone, and obtain the first global map for the distribution of this process. A model including two predictors (surface temperature and nitrate vertical gradient) explained 50% of the variance in the nitrate diffusive flux. This model was applied to climatological data to predict nitrate diffusion in oligotrophic mid and low latitude regions. Mean nitrate diffusion (~ 20 Tmol N y−1) was comparable to nitrate entrainment due to seasonal mixed-layer deepening between 40°N–40ºS, and to the sum of global estimates of nitrogen fixation, fluvial fluxes and atmospheric deposition. These results indicate that nitrate diffusion represents one of the major sources of new nitrogen into the surface ocean in these regions.
2045-2322
Mouriño-Carballido, Beatriz
1bfd941d-9ec6-473f-94bd-bb6faac56fa5
Otero Ferrer, José Luis
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Fernandez Castro, Bieito
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Marañón, Emilio
c1799c8b-0849-400f-88c3-7ba064feff5c
Blázquez Maseda, Mariña
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Aguiar-González, Borja
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Chouciño, Paloma
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Graña, Rocío
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Moreira-Coello, Víctor
a35e6d91-c6bd-4068-938b-4fd3d9de5cda
Villamaña, Marina
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Mouriño-Carballido, Beatriz
1bfd941d-9ec6-473f-94bd-bb6faac56fa5
Otero Ferrer, José Luis
fecda7e6-3309-4dd0-85d1-8ee444b0f3ab
Fernandez Castro, Bieito
8017e93c-d5ee-4bba-b443-9c72ca512d61
Marañón, Emilio
c1799c8b-0849-400f-88c3-7ba064feff5c
Blázquez Maseda, Mariña
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Aguiar-González, Borja
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Chouciño, Paloma
b0ebda43-f5f6-4c1a-a710-520be10023cd
Graña, Rocío
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Moreira-Coello, Víctor
a35e6d91-c6bd-4068-938b-4fd3d9de5cda
Villamaña, Marina
9504a28b-9fee-457d-b71e-690cb5c7a60d

Mouriño-Carballido, Beatriz, Otero Ferrer, José Luis, Fernandez Castro, Bieito, Marañón, Emilio, Blázquez Maseda, Mariña, Aguiar-González, Borja, Chouciño, Paloma, Graña, Rocío, Moreira-Coello, Víctor and Villamaña, Marina (2021) Magnitude of nitrate turbulent diffusion in contrasting marine environments. Scientific Reports, 11 (1), [18804]. (doi:10.1038/s41598-021-97731-4).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Difficulties to quantify ocean turbulence have limited our knowledge about the magnitude and variability of nitrate turbulent diffusion, which constitutes one of the main processes responsible for the supply of nitrogen to phytoplankton inhabiting the euphotic zone. We use an extensive dataset of microturbulence observations collected in contrasting oceanic regions, to build a model for nitrate diffusion into the euphotic zone, and obtain the first global map for the distribution of this process. A model including two predictors (surface temperature and nitrate vertical gradient) explained 50% of the variance in the nitrate diffusive flux. This model was applied to climatological data to predict nitrate diffusion in oligotrophic mid and low latitude regions. Mean nitrate diffusion (~ 20 Tmol N y−1) was comparable to nitrate entrainment due to seasonal mixed-layer deepening between 40°N–40ºS, and to the sum of global estimates of nitrogen fixation, fluvial fluxes and atmospheric deposition. These results indicate that nitrate diffusion represents one of the major sources of new nitrogen into the surface ocean in these regions.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 17 August 2021
Published date: 22 September 2021
Additional Information: Funding Information: We thank the officers, technicians and crew of the R/V Hespérides, Sarmiento de Gamboa, Mytilus, Ramon Margalef and Lura for their help during the cruises. This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) through projects: CTM2016-75451-C2-1-R, CTM2012-30680, CTM2009-06712-E/MAR, and CTM2007-28925-E/MAR to B. Mouriño, CSD2008-00077 to C. Duarte, CTM2008-0626I-C03 to M. Latasa, REN2003-09532-C03-01 to R. Varela, CTM2004-05174-C02 to E. Marañón, CTM2011-25035 to P. Cermeño, CTM2006-12344-C02-01 to M. Alcaraz, CTM2012-35155 to M. Gil Coto; from the Galician Government through grants 09MMA027604PR to M. Ruiz and EM2013/021 to B. Mouriño; by the Instituto Español de Oceanografia (IEO) through the time series project RADIALES coordinated by A. Bode; by the 7thFramework Programme of the European Commission through grant FP7 SPACE.2010.1.1-01 261860 to M. Ruiz, and by the European Union through H2020 project ‘Tropical and South Atlantic climate-based marine ecosystem predictions for sustainable management’ (TRIATLAS, Grant agreement No 817578). J.L. Otero-Ferrer acknowledges the receipt of a FPI contract from MINECO (CTM2012-30680), and B. Fernández Castro a Juan de La Cierva Formación fellowship (FJCI-641 2015-25712, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spanish Government) and Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual Fellowship (grant agreement No. 834330) from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 451525
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/451525
ISSN: 2045-2322
PURE UUID: 4563a58d-e1ef-40ea-bbc4-044568d33323
ORCID for Bieito Fernandez Castro: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7797-854X

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Date deposited: 05 Oct 2021 19:25
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:04

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Contributors

Author: Beatriz Mouriño-Carballido
Author: José Luis Otero Ferrer
Author: Emilio Marañón
Author: Mariña Blázquez Maseda
Author: Borja Aguiar-González
Author: Paloma Chouciño
Author: Rocío Graña
Author: Víctor Moreira-Coello
Author: Marina Villamaña

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