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The global importance of metazoans to the biological carbon pump

View ORCID ProfileJérôme Pinti, View ORCID ProfileTim DeVries, View ORCID ProfileTommy Norin, View ORCID ProfileCamila Serra-Pompei, View ORCID ProfileRoland Proud, View ORCID ProfileDavid A. Siegel, View ORCID ProfileThomas Kiørboe, View ORCID ProfileColleen M. Petrik, View ORCID ProfileKen H. Andersen, View ORCID ProfileAndrew S. Brierley, View ORCID ProfileAndré W. Visser
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.22.436489
Jérôme Pinti
1VKR Centre for Ocean Life, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
2College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, University of Delaware, Lewes, DE 19958, USA
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  • For correspondence: jpinti@udel.edu
Tim DeVries
3Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
4Earth Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
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Tommy Norin
1VKR Centre for Ocean Life, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
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Camila Serra-Pompei
1VKR Centre for Ocean Life, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
5Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
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Roland Proud
6Pelagic Ecology Research Group, School of Biology, Gatty Marine Laboratory, Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 8LB, UK
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David A. Siegel
3Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
4Earth Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
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Thomas Kiørboe
1VKR Centre for Ocean Life, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
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Colleen M. Petrik
7Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, 3146 TAMU, USA
8Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92107, USA
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Ken H. Andersen
1VKR Centre for Ocean Life, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
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Andrew S. Brierley
6Pelagic Ecology Research Group, School of Biology, Gatty Marine Laboratory, Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 8LB, UK
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André W. Visser
1VKR Centre for Ocean Life, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
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Abstract

The daily vertical migrations of fish and other metazoans actively transport organic carbon from the ocean surface to depth, contributing to the biological carbon pump. An important but unanswered question is whether fish play a significant role in the biological carbon pump relative to other organisms, both in terms of carbon export and sequestration. Here, we use a game-theoretic food-web model that simulates diel vertical migrations to estimate global carbon fluxes and sequestration by fish and zooplankton due to respiration, fecal pellets, and deadfalls. Despite uncertainties due to poorly constrained biomass estimates of some functional groups, a robust result of this model is that fish play a major role in the biological carbon pump. Our model estimates that open-ocean metazoans inject ~3.1 (range 1.5 - 4.7) PgC/yr of a total of ~10 PgC/yr into the ocean’s interior. Fish are further responsible for 47% (25-65%) of the oceanic carbon sequestration mediated by metazoans. This essential ecosystem service provided by fishes could be at risk from unregulated fishing in the high seas.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • https://gitlab.gbar.dtu.dk/jppi/global-fish-biological-carbon-pump

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
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Posted May 10, 2022.
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The global importance of metazoans to the biological carbon pump
Jérôme Pinti, Tim DeVries, Tommy Norin, Camila Serra-Pompei, Roland Proud, David A. Siegel, Thomas Kiørboe, Colleen M. Petrik, Ken H. Andersen, Andrew S. Brierley, André W. Visser
bioRxiv 2021.03.22.436489; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.22.436489
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The global importance of metazoans to the biological carbon pump
Jérôme Pinti, Tim DeVries, Tommy Norin, Camila Serra-Pompei, Roland Proud, David A. Siegel, Thomas Kiørboe, Colleen M. Petrik, Ken H. Andersen, Andrew S. Brierley, André W. Visser
bioRxiv 2021.03.22.436489; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.22.436489

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