Assessing the Temporal Variability and Drivers of Transparent Exopolymer Particle Concentrations and Production Rates in
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Assessing the Temporal Variability and Drivers of Transparent Exopolymer Particle Concentrations and Production Rates in a Subtropical Estuary Elizabeth L. Harvey 1
&
Sean R. Anderson 2,3 & Quintin Diou-Cass 4 & Patrick I. Duffy 5
Received: 4 August 2020 / Revised: 25 September 2020 / Accepted: 2 October 2020 # The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) are the central mechanism by which carbon is shuttled from the surface to the deep ocean. Despite the importance of these particles, the magnitude and drivers of temporal variability in the concentration and production rate of TEP in the ocean are not well resolved, especially in highly dynamic and productive regions like estuaries. Here, TEP dynamics were evaluated across weekly, tidal, and diel time scales within the Skidaway River Estuary (GA, USA) and adjacent coastal waters in the South Atlantic Bight. No significant trends in TEP concentration or production rates were observed over weekly time scales, though over tidal cycles, TEP concentration varied between tide stage and TEP:chlorophyll ratios were always lower at low relative to high tides. Over sequential diel cycles, TEP concentrations were two times higher at night relative to midday. Different biological and environmental variables were correlated with TEP dynamics (Spearman ρ) depending on the time scale considered, reinforcing the importance of time-specific drivers of TEP. These results emphasize the importance in considering the temporal variability of field-based TEP measurements, with implications for accurate assessments of carbon cycling in coastal ecosystems and the incorporation of TEP into carbon export models. Keywords Transparent exopolymer particle . TEP . Temporal variability . Diel
Introduction Particle attachment and/or aggregation aided by transparent exopolymer particles (TEP) is one of the most common Communicated by Zhanfei Liu Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00847-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Elizabeth L. Harvey [email protected] 1
Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
2
Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS, USA
3
Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division, Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Miami, FL, USA
4
Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
5
Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, University of Georgia, Savannah, GA, USA
mechanisms that facilitates carbon export (Alldredge et al. 1993; Engel 2004), from the surface to the deep ocean. TEP are abiotically forming, gel-like particles that represent an important pathway and intermediary in the transformation between dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) and form the matrix of all marine snow particles (Alldredge et al. 1993; Passow and Alldredge 1
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