The biological carbon pump has been estimated to export ~5–15 Gt C yr⁻¹ into the deep ocean, and forms the principal deep-sea food resource. Irregular, intense pulses of particulate organic carbon (POC) have been found to make up about one-third of the overall POC fluxes at a long-term deep-sea research station influenced by coastal upwelling of the California Current, Station M (34°50′N, 123° W, 4000 m depth). However, the drivers of these pulses have been challenging to quantify. It has long been recognized that ocean currents can result in particles being advected while sinking to the point of collection by a sediment trap. Thus, a sediment trap time series can incorporate material from a dynamic catchment area, a concept sometimes referred to as a statistical funnel. This concept raises many questions including: what are the day-to-day conditions at the source locations of the sinking POC? And, how might such ‘ocean weather’ and related ecosystem factors influence the intense variation seen at the seafloor? Here we analyzed three-dimensional ocean currents from a Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) model from 2011 to 2017 to trace the potential source locations of particles sinking at 1000, 100, and 50 m d⁻¹ from an export depth of 100 m. We then used regionally tailored satellite data products to estimate export flux of POC from these locations. For the 100 m d⁻¹ speed, the particles had origins of up to ~300 km horizontal distance from the sediment trap location, moored at Station M at 3400 m depth., and nearly 1000 km for the 50 m d⁻¹ speed. Particle tracking indicated that, there was considerable inter-annual variation in source locations. Particle source locations tended to originate from the east in the summer months, with higher export and POC fluxes. Occasionally these locations were in the vicinity of highly productive ocean features nearer to the coast. We found significant correlations between export flux of organic carbon from the estimated source locations at 100 m depth to trap-estimated POC fluxes at 3400 m depth. These results set the stage for further investigation into sinking speed distributions, conditions at the source locations, and comparisons with mechanistic biogeochemical models and between particle tracking model frameworks.

估计生物碳泵的出口量约为5-15 Gt C yr ^-1进入深海，并形成主要的深海食物资源。在受加利福尼亚海流M站沿海岸上升影响的长期深海研究站中，已发现颗粒有机碳（POC）的不规则，强烈脉冲约占总POC通量的三分之一。 50'N，123°W，深度4000 m）。但是，这些脉冲的驱动器很难量化。长期以来，人们已经认识到洋流会导致平流层被沉积物陷落器沉降到收集点而被平流。因此，沉积物捕集时间序列可以合并来自动态集水区的物质，该概念有时被称为统计漏斗。这个概念引起了许多问题，包括：下沉的POC的源位置的日常条件是什么？和，这种“海洋天气”和相关的生态系统因素将如何影响海底的剧烈变化？在这里，我们分析了2011年至2017年来自区域海洋建模系统（ROMS）模型的三维洋流，以追踪下沉在1000、100和50 m d的粒子的潜在源位置。出口深度为100 m时为^-1。然后，我们使用了区域定制的卫星数据产品来估计这些位置的POC出口通量。对于100 m d ^-1的速度，颗粒的起源距沉积物捕集阱位置的水平距离最大为〜300 km，停泊在M站的3400 m深度，而对于50 m d ^-1则接近1000 km。速度。粒子跟踪表明，源位置有很大的年际变化。夏季，粒子源位置往往来自东部，出口和POC通量较高。有时，这些位置是在靠近海岸的高产海洋要素附近。我们发现有机碳的出口通量从估计的源位置（100 m深度）与陷阱估计的POC通量（3400 m深度）之间存在显着相关性。这些结果为进一步研究沉没速度分布，震源位置的条件，与力学生物地球化学模型以及颗粒追踪模型框架之间的比较奠定了基础。