%0 Journal Article %T An initial carbon export assessment in the Mediterranean Sea based on drifting sediment traps and the Underwater Vision Profiler data sets, %+ Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche (LOV) %+ Institut méditerranéen d'océanologie (MIO) %+ Istituto di Biofisica [Pisa] (IBF) %A Ramondenc, Simon %A Goutx, M. %A Lombard, Fabien %A Santinelli, Chiara %A Stemann Larsen, Pernille %A Guidi, Lionel %A Gorsky, Gabriel %< sans comité de lecture %Z MIO:16-098 %@ 0967-0637 %J Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers %I Elsevier %V 117 %P 107–119 %8 2016-08-17 %D 2016 %R 10.1016/j.dsr.2016.08.015 %K Carbon exportPOCDOCWestern and eastern Mediterranean %Z Environmental Sciences/Global ChangesJournal articles %X During the SESAME EU FP6 project, all available particulate organic carbon (POC) data collected from driftingsediment trap and Underwater Vision Profiler deployments (INSU PROOF database, 1991–2011) weregathered in order to assess carbon export at the scale of the Mediterranean Sea. In this study, we observedthat particle size, POC export, and the contribution of microphytoplankton to the phytoplankton communitystructure, all decreased following the west to east net primary production gradient. One the other hand, no clearlongitudinal gradient was found regarding particle composition (C/N ratio or lipid content). The abovelongitudinal patterns were also observed at the seasonal scale from spring to summer in the northwestern subbasin.These observations suggest that particle size rather than organic matter composition controls fluxes ofPOC in the Mediterranean Sea. The comparison between POC and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) fluxeshighlights the different time-scale of physicals vertical mechanisms and suggests that DOC flux can play anunderestimated role in the supply of fresh carbon to the deep waters Mediterranean Sea. Indeed, DOC supply todeeper layers can be one order of magnitude larger than particle carbon flux but occurs in pulses whenstratification breaks due to (i) deep-water formation, or (ii) winter mixing. In contrast, the vertical export ofPOC occurs throughout the year bringing weak, but almost continuous, energy to meso- and bathypelagicorganisms. %G English %L hal-01437158 %U https://hal.science/hal-01437158 %~ SDE %~ INSU %~ UPMC %~ UNIV-TLN %~ CNRS %~ UNIV-AMU %~ MIO %~ OSU-INSTITUT-PYTHEAS %~ GIP-BE %~ LOV %~ UPMC_POLE_3 %~ SORBONNE-UNIVERSITE %~ SU-SCIENCES %~ SU-SCI %~ UMS-829 %~ MIO-CEM %~ LOV_COMPLEX %~ ALLIANCE-SU