Formation and fate of marine snow: small-scale processes with large- scale implications

By T. Kiørboe. 2001

253 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Marine snow aggregates are believed to be the main vehicles for vertical material transport in the ocean. However, aggregates are also sites of elevated heterotrophic activity, which may rather cause enhanced retention of aggregated material in the upper ocean. Small-scale biological-physical interactions govern the formation and fate of marine snow. Aggregates may form by physical coagulation: fluid motion causes collisions between small primary particles (e.g. phytoplankton) that may then stick together to form aggregates with enhanced sinking velocities. Bacteria may subsequently solubilise and remineralise aggregated particles. Because the solubilization rate exceeds the remineralization rate, organic solutes leak out of sinking aggregates. The leaking solutes spread by diffusion and advection and form a chemical trail in the wake of the sinking aggregate that may guide small zooplankters to the aggregate. Also, suspended bacteria may enjoy the elevated concentration of organic solutes in the plume. I explore these small-scale formation and degradation processes by means of models, experiments and field observations. The larger scale implications for the structure and functioning of pelagic food chains of export vs. retention of material will be discussed.

Subfields: Atmospheric Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/37e189380c6b9920c631e5175e32cb173a8d5bb8

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In Atmospheric Science

Citations in the corpus

Microbial ecology of organic aggregates in aquatic ecosystems (2002, background): “Such plumes of potential bacterial substrates, e.g. amino acids and oligopeptides, can be detected by chemotactic bacteria and lead to intense clustering of motile bacteria around these nutrient point sources (Kiørboe 2001, H. P. Grossart & F. Azam unpubl. results).”
Antarctic Marine Biodiversity: Adaptations, Environments and Responses to Change (2018, background): “…during its passage through the water column, often aggregating, but significant fractions are consumed by pelagic species or broken down by microbial activity during the descent, and the material reaching the seabed is less available to suspension-feeders and more to deposit grazers (Kiørboe 2001).”
Biologically induced modification of seawater viscosity in the Eastern English Channel during a Phaeocystis globosa spring bloom (2006, background): “…relevant processes of viral infection (Furhman, 1999), nutrient uptake (Karp-Boss et al., 1996; Blackburn et al., 1998), aggregate formation (Kiørboe, 2001), light harvesting (Kirk, 1994), predator–prey interactions (Gerritsen and Strickler, 1977) and behavior (Seuront et al., 2004) occur.”
Microbial oceanography of the dark ocean's pelagic realm (2009, background): “Alternatively, they can repackage suspended material into denser, rapidly settling fecal pellets (Lampitt et al. 1990; Bochdansky and Herndl 1992; Kiørboe 2001).”
Blind dating—mate finding in planktonic copepods. I. Tracking the pheromone trail of Centropages typicus (2005, background): “…(Yen et al. 1998) and behavioural (Poulet & Quellet 1982, Gill & Poulet 1988) responses to elevated concentrations of amino acids, as do many other crustaceans (e.g. Thomson & Ache 1980), and amino acids are even known to elicit trail-tracking behaviour in some copepods (Kiørboe 2001).”
Marine Biofilms: A Successful Microbial Strategy With Economic Implications (2018, background): “These transparent exopolymer particles not only act as support for bacterial colonization, but also adsorb and transport solutes, aggregate solid particles and, by promoting the sedimentation of particles, contribute to the fluxes of carbon into deep water (Kiørboe, 2000; Passow, 2002).”
Biophysical interactions in the plankton: A cross‐scale review (2012, background): “Aggregate formation, in particular, represents an individual-scale phenomenon sensitive to changes in turbulence that has been the focus of recent research: mesocosm studies and models have helped elucidate the biophysical interactions that influence particle coagulation (e.g., Jackson 1990; Alldred”
Theory of Island Biogeography on a Microscopic Scale: Organic Aggregates as Islands for Aquatic Pathogens (2010, background): “…interactions (e.g. Bochdansky & Herndl 1992, Alber & Valiela 1996, Shanks & Walters 1997, Kiørboe & Thygesen 2001), and carbon and nutrient cycling (e.g. Shanks & Trent 1979, Cho & Azam 1988, Alldredge & Gotschalk 1990, Brzezinski et al. 1997, Ploug et al. 1999, Alldredge 2000, Kiørboe 2001).”
The multiple fates of sinking particles in the North Atlantic Ocean (2015, background): “…from the ocean’s surface can be degraded during their downward transit by other processes that rival particle-attached microbial respiration in magnitude [Close et al., 2013; Giering et al., 2014; Kiørboe, 2001; Kiørboe and Jackson, 2001; Stemmann et al., 2004a, 2004b; Taylor and Karl, 1991].”
Effects of rising temperature on the formation and microbial degradation of marine diatom aggregates (2009, background): “Degradation of particulate matter in aggregates The flux of organic matter in aggregates and the related particle concentration both decrease continuously with depth (Martin et al. 1987, Kiørboe 2001).”