Nutrient Distributions and Ocean Productivity

The distributions of dissolved oxygen, nutrients and carbon in the ocean are strongly affected by production of biomass in the euphotic zone, by vertical particle fluxes and by remineralization of particles during sinking and after deposition at the ocean floor. These processes generally lead to nutrient depletion of surface waters and to high nutrient/low oxygen values in intermediate, deep and bottom waters. Differences in the vertical structure of various nutrients (phosphate, silicate, total-carbon, alkalinity) reveal differences in the penetration depths of organic material, CaCO₃ and opal.

Water column oxygen, nutrient and carbon data thus provide important information on the strengths of downward particle fluxes and mid-depth remineralization rates and can be used by inverse models to quantify these fluxes and rates. More...