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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Biogeochemistry
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1481409

Metabolites reflect variability introduced by mesoscale eddies in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

Provisionally accepted
William Kumler William Kumler 1,2Wei Qin Wei Qin 3Rachel A Lundeen Rachel A Lundeen 2Benedetto Barone Benedetto Barone 4Laura T Carlson Laura T Carlson 2Anitra E. Ingalls Anitra E. Ingalls 2*
  • 1 University of Washington, Seattle, United States
  • 2 School of Oceanography, College of the Environment, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States
  • 3 School of Biological Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, United States
  • 4 Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Mesoscale eddies significantly alter open ocean environments such as those found in the subtropical gyres that cover a large fraction of the global ocean. Previous studies have explored eddy effects on biogeochemistry and microbial community composition but not on the molecular composition of particulate organic matter. This study reports the absolute concentration of 67 metabolites and relative abundances for 640 molecular features, measured using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) following both targeted and untargeted approaches. This approach allowed us to better understand how mesoscale eddies impact the metabolome of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre during two cruises in 2017 and 2018. We find that many metabolites track biomass trends, but metabolites like isethionic acid, homarine, and trigonelline linked to eukaryotic phytoplankton were enriched at the deep chlorophyll maximum of the cyclonic features, while degradation products such as arsenobetaine were enriched in anticyclones. In every analysis, the metabolites with the strongest responses were identified using LC-MS through untargeted metabolomics approaches, highlighting that the molecules most sensitive to environmental perturbation were not among the previously characterized metabolome. By analyzing depth variability (accounting for 20-40% of metabolomic variability across ~150 meters) and the vertical displacement of isopycnal surfaces (explaining 10-20% of variability across a sea level anomaly range of 40 centimeters and a spatial distance of 300 kilometers), this analysis constrains the importance of mesoscale eddies in shaping the chemical composition of particulate matter in the largest biomes on the planet.

    Keywords: Mass Spectrometry, mesoscale eddies, Microbial, Metabolomics, North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, Sea level anomalies

    Received: 15 Aug 2024; Accepted: 28 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kumler, Qin, Lundeen, Barone, Carlson and Ingalls. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Anitra E. Ingalls, School of Oceanography, College of the Environment, University of Washington, Seattle, 98105, Washington, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.