Biogeochemistry of the South Pacific Gyre

back deck — Remnants of the evening light and the Earth's shadow looking out from the stern of the RV Sonne during the UltraPac Expedition
Photo: T. Ferdelman (c)

Due to its extreme remoteness from any continents, the surface waters of the South Pacific Subtropical Gyre (SPG) are the most oligotrophic in the global ocean, with the clearest waters and lowest sea surface chlorophyll a concentrations.

Since 2007, I have had the privledge of participating in three oceanographic and scientific drilling expeditions to this vast, remote part of our planet.

R/V Sonne SO-245 "UltraPac" Expedition

R/V Sonne in Antofagasta at begin of SO-245 (c) T. Ferdelman

In Situ Pump Deployment (c) T. Ferdelman

The UltraPac SO-245 Expedition onboard the RV Sonne was an expedition to the South Pacific Gyre in December 2015/January 2016 that was organized and led by the MPI Bremen.

Together with colleagues from the ICBM/U. Oldenburg, National U. Ireland at Galway, LDEO/Columbia University, NOC Southampton, U Catholica del Norte, we conducted a cross-gyre transect to investigate the controls on nitrogen, phosphorus and organic carbon cycling, trace element isotope geochemistry, and microbioal ecology in the water column and surface sedments at 8 main stations, and 7 intermediate stations.

Links and Publications from the UltraPac Expedition

SO-245 Cruise Report

SO-245 Weekly Reports (German & English)

"Leitstelle" Weekly Reports (German & English)

PANGAEA Data from SO245

Niche partitioning by photosynthetic plankton as a driver of CO₂-fixation across the oligotrophic South Pacific Subtropical Ocean
Duerschlag, Julia, Wiebke Mohr, Timothy G. Ferdelman*, Julie LaRoche, Dhwani Desai, Peter L. Croot, Daniela Voß, Oliver Zielinski, Gaute Lavik, Sten Littmann, Clara Martinez-Perez, Bernhard Tschitschko, Nina Bartlau, Helena Osterholz, Thorsten Dittmar and Marcel MM Kuypers
The ISME Journal, August 19, 2021, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-021-01072-z.
*corresponding author

Accumulation of DOC in the South Pacific Subtropical Gyre from a Molecular Perspective
Helena Osterholz, David Kilgour, Dominik Sebastian Storey, Gaute Lavik, Timothy Ferdelman, Jutta Niggemann, and Thorsten Dittmar
Marine Chemistry, March 9, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marchem.2021.103955.

Atmospheric Dust Inputs, Iron Cycling, and Biogeochemical Connections in the South Pacific Ocean From Thorium Isotopes. Global Biogeochemical Cycles
FJ Pavia, RF Anderson, G Winckler, and MQ Fleisher
Global Biogeochemical Cycles 2020, 34 (9), e2020GB006562. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GB006562.

On-Site Analysis of Bacterial Communities of the Ultraoligotrophic South Pacific Gyre
Greta Reintjes, Halina E. Tegetmeyer, Miriam Bürgisser, Sandi Orlić, Ivo Tews, Mikhail Zubkov, Daniela Voss, Oliver Zielinski, Christian Quast, Frank Oliver Glöckner, Rudolf Amann, Timothy G. Ferdelman, Bernhard M. Fuchs
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 85, no. 14, pp. e00184–19.

link to paper

Extensive Microbial Processing of Polysaccharides in the South Pacific Gyre via Selfish Uptake and Extracellular Hydrolysis

Reintjes, G., Fuchs, B.M., Amann, R., Arnosti, C.,

2020. Front. Microbiol. 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.583158

Insight into planktonic protistan and fungal communities across the nutrient-depleted environment of the South Pacific Subtropical Gyre

Kajan, K., Fuchs, B.M., Orlić, S.,

2024. Microbiology Spectrum 12, e03016-23. https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.03016-23

IODP Expedition 329 South Pacific Gyre Microbiology

IODP Exp 329 Shipboard Logo

In 2010 I had the wonderful opportunity to sail as a Geochemist as part of the Shipboard Scientific Party of the International Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 329 to explore sub-seafloor microbial life in sediments of the South Pacifc Gyre.

Interesting Links and Publications

Proceedings IODP Expedition 329

Expedition 329 Information

Presence of Oxygen and Aerobic Communities from Sea Floor to Basement in Deep-Sea Sediments

D’Hondt, Steven, Fumio Inagaki, Carlos Alvarez Zarikian, Lewis J. Abrams, Nathalie Dubois, Tim Engelhardt, Helen Evans, Timothy G. Ferdelman et al. 2015.

Nature Geoscience 8 (4): 299–304. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2387.