Abstract
The subpolar North Atlantic plays an outsized role in the
atmosphere-to-ocean carbon sink. The central Irminger Sea is home to
well-documented deep winter convection and high phytoplankton
production, which drive strong seasonal and interannual variability in
regional carbon cycling. We use observational data from moored carbonate
system chemistry sensors and annual turn-around cruise samples at the
Ocean Observatories Initiative’s Global Irminger Sea Array to construct
a near-continuous time series of mixed layer dissolved inorganic carbon
(DIC), pCO2, and total alkalinity from summer 2015 to summer 2022. We
use these carbonate system chemistry time series to deconvolve the
physical and biological drivers of surface ocean carbon cycling in this
region on seasonal, annual, and interannual time scales. We find high
annual net community production within the seasonally-varying mixed
layer, averaging 9.7±1.7 mol m-2 yr-1 with high interannual variability
(range of 6.0 to 13.7 mol m-2 yr-1). The highest daily net community
production rates occur during the late winter and early spring, prior to
the observed high chlorophyll concentrations associated with the spring
phytoplankton bloom. As a result, the winter and early spring play a
much larger role in biological carbon export from the mixed layer than
traditionally thought.