Nitrate supply from deep to near-surface waters of the North Pacific subtropical gyre

Concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) decrease in the surface mixed layers during spring and summer in most of the oligotrophic ocean. Mass balance calculations require that the missing DIC is converted into particulate carbon by photosynthesis(1-3). This DIC uptake represents one of the largest components of net community production in the world ocean(2,4). However, mixed-layer waters in these regions of the ocean typically contain negligible concentrations of plant nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate(3,5). Combined nutrient supply mechanisms including nitrogen fixation, diffusive transport and vertical entrainment are believed to be insufficient to supply the required nutrients for photosynthesis(6,7). The basin-scale potential for episodic nutrient transport by eddy events is unresolved(8,9). As a result, it is not understood how biologically mediated DIC uptake can be supported in the absence of nutrients. Here we report on high-resolution measurements of nitrate (NO3-) and oxygen (O-2) concentration made over 21 months using a profiling float deployed near the Hawaii Ocean Time-series station in the North Pacific subtropical gyre. Our measurements demonstrate that as O-2 was produced and DIC was consumed over two annual cycles, a corresponding seasonal deficit in dissolved NO3- appeared in water at depths from 100 to 250 m. The deep-water deficit in NO3- was in near-stoichiometric balance with the fixed nitrogen exported to depth. Thus, when the water column from the surface to 250 m is considered as a whole, there is near equivalence between nutrient supply and demand. Short-lived transport events (<10 days) that connect deep stocks of nitrate to nutrient-poor surface waters were clearly present in 12 of the 127 vertical profiles.