Sinking Jelly-Carbon Unveils Potential Environmental Variability along a Continental Margin

Particulate matter transfer fuels benthic ecosystems in continental margins and the deep sea, removing carbon from the upper ocean. Gelatinous zooplankton biomass provides a fast carbon vector that has been underestimated. Observational data of a large-scale benthic trawling survey from 1994 to 2005 provided a unique opportunity to quantify for the first time jelly carbon along an entire continental margin in the Mediterranean Sea. Biomass was sampled in shelves and slopes with peaks ranging from 0.3 to 1.4 mg C m^2 month^-1 after trawling between 30,000 and 175,000 m^2 of seabed. The jelly-biomass temporal variability paralleled hydroclimate modifications. Here we show that the enhanced jelly-carbon transfer is connected to a temperature-driven system where chlorophyll plays a minor role. Our results stress the importance of gelatinous groups as indicators of large-scale ecosystem changes, where jelly-carbon plays a more conspicuous role than previously thought in carbon transfer to the ocean's interior.

LEBRATO Mario;  MOLINERO Juan-Carlos;  CARTES Joan;  LLORIS Domingo;  MELIN Frederic;  BENI-CASADELLA Laia; 

2014-01-02

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

JRC85284

1932-6203,   

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0082070,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC85284,   

10.1371/journal.pone.0082070,