Particle size distribution at Ocean Station Papa from nanometers to millimeters constrained with intercomparison of seven methods

Abstract

Particle size distribution (PSD) is a fundamental property that affects almost every aspect of the marine ecosystem, including ecological trophic interactions and transport of organic matter and trace elements. We measured PSDs using a suite of seven instruments in waters near Ocean Station Papa in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. These instruments and their sizing ranges are: Laser In-Situ Scattering and Transmissometer (LISST)-Volume Scattering Function meter (VSF) and Multispectral Volume Scattering Meter (MVSM), both sizing particles from 0.02 µm to 2000 µm; the LISST-100X, from 3 µm to 180 µm; the ViewSizer, from 0.3 µm to 2 µm; the Coulter Counter, from 2 µm to 40 µm; the Imaging Flow CytoBot (IFCB), from 5 µm to 100 μm; and the underwater vision profiler (UVP), from 100 µm to 2000 µm. Together, they cover an unprecedented size range spanning 5 orders of magnitude from 20 nm to 2 mm. The differences in size definition for the different instruments cause biases in comparing PSDs. The absolute differences in PSDs, after correcting for mean biases, were less than a factor of 3 among all the instruments, and within 50% among LISST-100X, LISST+MVSM, Coulter Counter and IFCB. We also found that particles of sizes <50 µm were not very porous; however, porosity must be considered for particles >50 µm. The merged PSDs, ranging from 0.02 µm to 2000 µm, showed little variation in the PSD slope in the upper 75 m of the water column even though the total number of particles decreased with depth. While submicrometer particles are numerically dominant, particles of sizes 1 µm to 100 µm account for 70–90% of the solid volume of particles. We expect that the results of this study will lead to improved estimates of mass and carbon flux in the study area.