A rare and extensive summer bloom enhanced by ocean eddies in the oligotrophic western North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

Abstract

The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) is the largest ecosystem on Earth, and it plays a critical role in global ocean productivity and carbon cycling. Here, we report a rare and striking ~2000-km-long phytoplankton bloom that lasted over one month in the western part of the NPSG in summer 2003. The bloom resulted from the co-occurrence of a northward-shifted North Equatorial Current (NEC) supplying additional phosphate, and strong eddy activity that fueled productivity and spread chlorophyll mainly through horizontal stirring. The extensive one-month bloom had a maximum Chl concentration of six times the summer mean value and collectively fixed an additional five teragrams (5 × 10 ¹² g) of carbon above the summer average. An increase in the pCO ₂ during the bloom suggests that most of the additionally fixed carbon was rapidly consumed.