Figure 4
From: The Oceanic Biological Pump: Rapid carbon transfer to depth at Continental Margins during Winter
Modified model of physical and biological controls and their impacts on the winter fluxes of organic carbon through Barkley Canyon. Phyto-convection through the deepened mixed layer dilutes phytoplankton and grazers during winter, thus decoupling grazing pressure from phytoplankton growth. This leads to an increasing standing stock and subsequent phytoplankton pulses during short periods of quiescence and temperature increase with subsequent shoaling of the mixed layer. The subsequent weather induced turbulent event in surface waters causes aggregation and a detrainment of phytoplankton below the receding convective layer, from where it settles towards the seafloor and into the canyon. There, lateral transport Modes 1 and 2 (see Fig. 3) transfer the phytodetritus to depth.
