Hidden Comet-Tails of Marine Snow Impede Ocean-based Carbon Sequestration
Rahul Chajwa, Eliott Flaum, Kay D. Bidle, Benjamin Van Mooy, Manu, Prakash

TL;DR
This study uncovers how mucus-tails on marine snow particles significantly slow their sinking, increasing their residence time in the upper ocean and reducing carbon sequestration, through innovative microscopy and modeling.
Contribution
It introduces a novel microscopy technique and a reduced order model to quantify the impact of mucus-tails on marine snow sedimentation in the ocean.
Findings
Mucus-tails double marine snow residence time in the upper ocean.
Mucus-tails reduce overall carbon sequestration by enhancing microbial remineralization.
Universal comet tail flow morphology observed across diverse marine snow particles.
Abstract
Global carbon-cycle on our planet ties together the living and the non-living world, coupling ecosystem function to our climate. Gravity driven downward flux of carbon in our oceans in the form of marine snow, commonly referred to as biological pump directly regulates our climate. Multi-scale nature of this phenomena, biological complexity of the marine snow particles and lack of direct observations of sedimentation fundamentally limits a mechanistic understanding of this downward flux. The absence of a physics based understanding of sedimentation of these multi-phase particles in a spatially and temporally heterogeneous ocean adds significant uncertainty in our carbon flux predictions. Using a newly invented scale-free vertical tracking microscopy, we measure for the first time, the microscopic sedimentation and detailed fluid-structure dynamics of marine snow aggregates in field…
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Taxonomy
TopicsCryospheric studies and observations · Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics · Polar Research and Ecology
