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JPR Advance Access originally published online on February 5, 2008
Journal of Plankton Research 2008 30(5):577-585; doi:10.1093/plankt/fbn021
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

A global estimation of mesozooplankton ammonium excretion in the open ocean

S. Hernández-León1,*, C. Fraga1 and T. Ikeda2

1 Biological Oceanography Laboratory, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar, Campus Universitario de Tafira, 35017 Las Palmas de GC, Canary Islands, Spain 2 Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, 3-1-1 Minato-cho, Hakodate 041-0821, Japan

* CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: shernandez{at}dbio.ulpgc.es

Received on January 2, 2007; revised on January 31, 2008; accepted on February 3, 2008


  Abstract

Mesozooplankton ammonium excretion rates in the ocean, based on published data, were studied across all latitudes in order to assess the amount of ammonium excretion by this community. Specific ammonium excretion rates were highest in equatorial waters and decreased rapidly pole-ward. Global community excretion in the upper 200 m of the oceans, integrated over all latitudes, accounted in general for 1.78 ± 0.60 Gt N·year–1. Excretion rates showed a decrease from tropical (0.65 ± 0.14 Gt N·year–1) to polar waters (0.05 ± 0.02 Gt N·year–1). The substrate metabolized by organisms as indicated by the O/N ratio showed a protein-based metabolism of mesozooplankton with the exception of the temperate and subpolar regions, which showed a more lipid-based metabolism. The largest contribution of ammonium to autotrophs was observed in the tropical and subtropical areas, decreasing to polar areas. On a global basis, nutrient regeneration by mesozooplankton in the oceanic realm was estimated to be in the range of 12–23% of the requirements for phytoplankton and bacterial production.

Corresponding editor: Roger Harris


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