Chemical characterization and dynamics of particulate combined amino acids in Pacific surface waters

Particulate organic matter (POM) in surface water plays an essential role in maintaining marine ecosystem and is a complex mixture of living POM (organisms) and non-living POM (detritus). Transformation of organic constituents of organisms to detritus may be the most active part in the decomposition processes of organic matter in marine biogeochemistry. Distribution and chemical fractionation of particulate combined amino acids (PCAAs) in surface waters from Southern Ocean to tropical waters along a transect of 170°W were examined to clarify the transfer processes of organic constituents of organisms to detritus. The observational facts may be summarized as follows. 1) Degradation Index (DI) based on principal component analysis of amino acid composition of bulk PCAAs agreed with the traditional degradation indicators of bulk POM, i.e., PCAAs-carbon (C)/particulate organic carbon (POC), PCAAs-nitrogen (N)/particulate nitrogen (PN) and C/N. 2) PCAAs were distinguished into 3 fractions, i.e., Urea-soluble, Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS)-soluble and SDS/Urea-insoluble fractions, by means of solubility against reagents frequently used for protein extraction from biological samples. Proportions of PCAAs of the 3 fractions to bulk PCAAs were almost constant, although concentrations of the PCAAs of 3 fractions as well as bulk in seawater varied two orders of magnitude over the transect. 3) There was no significant difference among DI values of the 3 fractions, although molecular mass distributions of the Urea-soluble and SDS-soluble fractions determined by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis were different. The results indicated that no one fraction was particularly susceptible to degradation and that there is a common mechanism for transferring and maintaining the similar chemical quality of bulk POM over the transect.