Lombard F, Guidi L, Kiørboe T (2013). Effect of Type and Concentration of Ballasting Particles on Sinking Rate of Marine Snow Produced by the Appendicularian Oikopleura dioica. PLoS ONE 8(9): e75676. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0075676
Appendicularians are small filter feeding plankton animals that possess a larger exterior mucus filtering devise called a house. Sitting inside their mm-sized house they beat their tail, thereby producing a feeding current that is passed through a series of filters to remove too large particles and retain smaller (few micron) prey particles. The filtering devise clogs and is replaced many times each day. The discarded house with attached particles is an abundant type of marine snow. It is a major vehicle of vertical material transport in the ocean, and an important component is the biological pump. The paper demonstrates how the types of particles that are attached to the house determine its sinking speed. Specifically, Saharan dust increases the sinking speed by a factor of two over that of un-ballasted particles. Dust storms, which reach far offshore, may therefore impact the concentration and flux of marine snow aggregates in the ocean.
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