CHAPTER 5 . Particulate Organic Matter Composition and Fluxes in the Sea
131
Fig. 5.5. Changes over time in
the fluxes of inorganic elements
in particles sinking to 3200 m
in the Sargasso Sea (reproduced
from Deuser et al. 1981)
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gregation and heterotrophic consumption by zooplankton and bacteria, this variation
is usually a decrease in flux with depth. As mentioned above, comparisons of particle
rain rates at various depths over the entire marine water column clearly demonstrate
that typically <1% of the organic matter produced by phytoplankton in the surface
ocean reaches the sea floor in the open ocean (e.g. Suess 1980; Martin et al. 1987).