Spatial patterns in phytoplankton community composition and their relationship to carbon export on the northwest Weddell Sea continental shelf
- 1University of East Anglia (Norwich, United Kingdom)
Abstract
Typically, diatoms, haptophytes, and cryptophytes dominate phytoplankton biomass and abundance in the Southern Ocean, determining bloom dynamics and carbon transfer and responding to physical factors such as sea ice concentration and mixing. However, phytoplankton community composition remains understudied in many regions of the Southern Ocean. Here, we present pigment-based phytoplankton community-composition data from a summer cruise to the northwest Weddell Sea continental shelf. Our pigment and diagnostic pigment analysis results show a predominance of fucoxanthin and 19'-hexanolyoxyfucoxanthin, i.e., diatoms and haptophytes, throughout various oceanic regimes and water column depths, consistent with community compositions from similar cold continental shelf regions. These are rare pigment-based community composition data from this key region for deep-water formation and carbon transport. Taken together, the relative biomass of the three dominant phytoplankton groups (39.7 % diatoms, 30.2 % haptophytes, and 14.9 % cryptophytes) help to explain ( R ² = 0.37–0.82) the magnitude of carbon export to 150 m. While additional measurements are needed to verify these relationships, these findings highlight the need to consider frequently overlooked phytoplankton types, alongside diatoms, in Southern Ocean models of carbon export due to the key, but differing, roles these groups play in production-export dynamics.
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BibTeX
@article{meyer2026spatial,
title = {{Spatial patterns in phytoplankton community composition and their relationship to carbon export on the northwest Weddell Sea continental shelf}},
author = {Meredith G. Meyer and Robert J. W. Brewin and Xuerong Sun and Clara Manno and Florence Atherden and Sasha J. Kramer and Giorgio Dall'Olmo and Karen J. Heywood},
journal = {Ocean Science},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.5194/os-22-3521-2026},
url = {https://os.copernicus.org/articles/22/3521/2026/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Spatial patterns in phytoplankton community composition and their relationship to carbon export on the northwest Weddell Sea continental shelf
AU - Meredith G. Meyer
AU - Robert J. W. Brewin
AU - Xuerong Sun
AU - Clara Manno
AU - Florence Atherden
AU - Sasha J. Kramer
AU - Giorgio Dall'Olmo
AU - Karen J. Heywood
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/02
JO - Ocean Science
DO - 10.5194/os-22-3521-2026
UR - https://os.copernicus.org/articles/22/3521/2026/
AB - Typically, diatoms, haptophytes, and cryptophytes dominate phytoplankton biomass and abundance in the Southern Ocean, determining bloom dynamics and carbon transfer and responding to physical factors such as sea ice concentration and mixing. However, phytoplankton community composition remains understudied in many regions of the Southern Ocean. Here, we present pigment-based phytoplankton community-composition data from a summer cruise to the northwest Weddell Sea continental shelf. Our pigment and diagnostic pigment analysis results show a predominance of fucoxanthin and 19'-hexanolyoxyfucoxanthin, i.e., diatoms and haptophytes, throughout various oceanic regimes and water column depths, consistent with community compositions from similar cold continental shelf regions. These are rare pigment-based community composition data from this key region for deep-water formation and carbon transport. Taken together, the relative biomass of the three dominant phytoplankton groups (39.7 % diatoms, 30.2 % haptophytes, and 14.9 % cryptophytes) help to explain ( R ² = 0.37–0.82) the magnitude of carbon export to 150 m. While additional measurements are needed to verify these relationships, these findings highlight the need to consider frequently overlooked phytoplankton types, alongside diatoms, in Southern Ocean models of carbon export due to the key, but differing, roles these groups play in production-export dynamics.
SN - 1812-0792
ER -