Water Column Distribution and Carbon Isotopic Signal of Cholesterol
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Water column distribution and carbon isotopic signal of cholesterol, brassicasterol and particulate organic carbon in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean Anne-Julie Cavagna, Frank Dehairs, Steven Bouillon, V. Woule-Ebongué, Frédéric Planchon, Bruno Delille, Ioanna Bouloubassi To cite this version: Anne-Julie Cavagna, Frank Dehairs, Steven Bouillon, V. Woule-Ebongué, Frédéric Planchon, et al.. Water column distribution and carbon isotopic signal of cholesterol, brassicasterol and particulate organic carbon in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. Biogeosciences, European Geosciences Union, 2013, 10 (4), pp.2787-2801. 10.5194/bg-10-2787-2013. hal-00914348v2 HAL Id: hal-00914348 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00914348v2 Submitted on 25 Apr 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 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Open Access Open Access Climate Climate of the Past of the Past Discussions Water column distribution and carbon isotopic signal of cholesterol, Open Access Open Access brassicasterol and particulate organic carbon in theEarth Atlantic System sector Earth System Dynamics Dynamics of the Southern Ocean Discussions A.-J. Cavagna1, F. Dehairs1, S. Bouillon2, V. Woule-Ebongue´1, F. Planchon3,*, B. Delille4, and I. Bouloubassi5 Open Access 1Earth and System Sciences & Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit Brussel,Geoscientific Brussels, Belgium Geoscientific Open Access 2Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Division of Soil and Water Management,Instrumentation Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Instrumentation Leuven, Belgium Methods and Methods and 3Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Section Mineralogy and Petrography, Royal Museum of Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium Data Systems Data Systems 4Department d’Astrophysique, Geophysique et Oceanographie/Oc´ eanographie´ chimique, Universite´ Libre de Liege,` Liege,` Discussions Open Access Open Access Belgium Geoscientific 5Laboratoire d’Oceanographie´ et du Climat (LOCEAN), Universite´ Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris,Geoscientific France *now at: Laboratoire des Sciences de l’Environnement Marin (LEMAR), Institut Universitaire Europeen´ de la Mer, Plouzane,´ Model Development Model Development France Discussions Correspondence to: A.-J. Cavagna ([email protected]) Open Access Open Access Received: 13 January 2012 – Published in Biogeosciences Discuss.: 9 February 2012 Hydrology and Hydrology and Revised: 20 March 2013 – Accepted: 2 April 2013 – Published: 29 April 2013 Earth System Earth System Sciences Sciences Abstract. The combination of concentrations and δ13C sig- rate related effects. Our data suggest a key role of zooplank- Discussions Open Access natures of Particulate Organic Carbon (POC) and sterols ton fecal aggregates in carbon export for thisOpen Access part of the provides a powerful approach to study ecological and envi- Southern Ocean (SO). Additionally, in the southern part of Ocean Science ronmental changes in both the modern and ancient ocean. the transect south of theOcean Polar Front Science (PF), the release of sea- We applied this tool to study the biogeochemical changes ice algae during the ice demise in the Seasonal Ice Zone Discussions in the modern ocean water column during the BONUS- (SIZ) is hypothesized to influence the isotopic signature of GoodHope survey (February–March 2008) from Cape Basin sterols in the open ocean. Overall, the combined use of δ13C Open Access to the northern part of the Weddell Gyre. Cholesterol and values and concentrations measurements of bothOpen Access bulk or- brassicasterol were chosen as ideal biomarkers of the het- ganic C and specific sterols throughout the water column of- Solid Earth erotrophic and autotrophic carbon pools, respectively, be- fers the promising potential toSolid explore Earth the recent history of cause of their ubiquitous and relatively refractory nature. plankton and the fate of organic matter in the SO. Discussions We document depth distributions of concentrations (rel- ative to bulk POC) and δ13C signatures of cholesterol and Open Access Open Access brassicasterol combined with CO2 aq. surface concentration 1 Introduction 13 variation. While the relationship between CO2 aq. and δ C The Cryosphere of bulk POC and biomarkers have been reported by oth- The intensity of organicThe matter Cryosphere (OM) export combined with Discussions ers for the surface water, our data show that this persists the efficiency of deep water heterotrophic reprocessing of in mesopelagic and deep waters, suggesting that δ13C sig- this material sets the sequestration’s efficiency of the oceanic natures of certain biomarkers in the water column could be biological carbon pump (Honjo et al., 2008; Boyd and Trull, applied as proxies for surface water CO2 aq. We observed a 2007; Battle et al., 2000). However, it appears difficult to general increase in sterol δ13C signatures with depth, which balance the organic C demand by twilight zone (currently is likely related to a combination of particle size effects, se- defined as the depth interval between 100–1000 m) het- lective feeding on larger cells by zooplankton, and growth erotrophs with the export flux from the upper mixed layer Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 2788 A.-J. Cavagna et al.: Water column distribution and carbon isotopic signal of sterols and POC (Burd et al., 2010; Steinberg et al., 2008; Reinthaler et al., controlled mesocosm experiments that grazers convert dif- 2006; Ar´ıstegui et al., 2005). Therefore it is essential to bet- ferent algal precursor sterols into cholesterol without signif- ter understand the processes controlling the export and re- icant isotopic fractionation. Moreover, Chikaraishi (2006) in processing of exported OM (Boyd and Trull, 2007). Gaining accordance with Grice et al. (1998) reports that no substan- information about the sources and fate of sinking and sus- tial carbon isotopic fractionation occurs during either het- pended biogenic particles is necessary to improve our knowl- erotrophic sterol assimilation or de novo synthesis. edge of the processes occurring below the euphotic layer, Schouten et al. (1998) state that the refractory nature where the attenuation of the export flux is the strongest. One and ubiquitous character of cholesterol as an eukaryotic 13 way to improve our understanding about mechanisms con- marker should favor the integrity of the δ Ccholesterol signa- trolling interrelated biogeochemical processes involved in tures when particles sink to greater depth, thereby preserv- carbon export and reprocessing is to characterize the chemi- ing the information acquired in surface waters. Brassicas- cal composition of C-carrier phases, such as particles sinking terol (2815,22: 24-Methylcholesta-5,22E-dien-3β-ol) is re- rapidly through the water column as well as suspended fine ported in a large number of algal classes (Volkman, 2003; particles with longer residence time (Wakeham et al., 2009). 1986) and is considered as a strict phytosterol, i.e. it can- As part of the Southern Ocean GEOTRACE program sam- not be biosynthesized by zooplankton. For these reasons, it pling opportunity, this study explores the fate of organic mat- is commonly used as an indicator of marine algae and of di- ter in the water column for the Atlantic sector of the Southern atoms, in particular. Recently, Rampen et al. (2010) stressed Ocean. Further dataset acquisition on the global ocean will that when diatoms dominate the phytoplankton community, help to reach a general picture using such type of informa- sterols, and brassicasterol in particular (abundant in the pen- tion since, to the best of our knowledge, no dataset like this nate diatoms), provide useful information on the type of di- one is available on the ocean water column. In the following atoms that are present. Therefore, for the Southern Ocean we focus our work on the Southern Ocean area. where diatoms are dominant but where other phytoplankton While several studies have examined the δ13C values of groups also contribute to the primary production, we will the bulk particulate organic carbon (POC) in the Southern consider brassicasterol as a strict phytoplankton indicator. Ocean (Lourey et al., 2004; Trull and Armand, 2001; Popp Because of their ubiquitous and relative refractory