Oceanic primary production forms the basis of the marine food web and provides a pathway for carbon sequestration. Despite its importance, spatial and temporal variations of primary production are poorly observed, in large part because the traditional measurement techniques are laborious and require the presence of a ship. More efficient methods are emerging that take advantage of miniaturized sensors integrated into autonomous platforms such as gliders and profiling floats. One such method relies on determining the diurnal cycle of dissolved oxygen in the mixed layer and has been applied successfully to measurements from gliders and mixed-layer floats. This study is the first documented attempt to estimate primary production from diurnal oxygen changes measured by Argo-type profiling floats, thus accounting for the whole euphotic zone. We first present a novel method for correcting measurement errors that result from the relatively slow response time of the oxygen optode sensor. This correction relies on an in situ determination of the sensor's effective response time. The method is conceptually straightforward and requires only two minor adjustments in current Argo data transmission protocols: (1) transmission of measurement time stamps and (2) occasional transmission of downcasts in addition to upcasts. Next, we present oxygen profiles collected by 10 profiling floats in the northern Gulf of Mexico, evaluate whether community production and respiration can be detected, and show evidence of internal oscillations influencing the diurnal oxygen signal. Our results show that profiling floats are capable of measuring diurnal oxygen variations although the confounding influence of physical processes does not permit a reliable estimation of biological rates in our dataset. We offer suggestions for recognizing and removing the confounding signals.

中文翻译：

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是否可以通过测量自主浮标的高频氧气剖面来确定海洋生物的生产和呼吸？

海洋初级生产构成了海洋食物网的基础，并为固碳提供了途径。尽管它很重要，但主要产品的时空变化却很少被观察到，这在很大程度上是因为传统的测量技术费力并且需要有船只。新兴的更有效的方法是利用集成到自主平台（例如滑翔机和仿形浮标）中的微型传感器。一种这样的方法依赖于确定混合层中溶解氧的昼夜循环，并已成功地应用于滑翔机和混合层浮标的测量。这项研究是第一个有记录的尝试，该尝试是通过Argo型轮廓浮标测量的每日氧气变化来估算初级生产的，从而说明了整个富营养区。我们首先提出一种新颖的方法来校正由于氧气光电传感器响应时间相对较慢而导致的测量误差。这种校正依赖于传感器有效响应时间的就地确定。该方法从概念上讲简单明了，仅需对当前的Argo数据传输协议进行两次较小的调整：（1）测量时间戳的传输和（2）除上播之外，还偶尔传输下播。接下来，我们介绍由墨西哥北部墨西哥湾的10个剖面浮标收集的氧气分布图，评估是否可以检测到社区生产和呼吸，并显示内部振荡影响昼夜氧气信号的证据。我们的结果表明，尽管物理过程的混杂影响并不能可靠地估算我们数据集中的生物速率，但剖面浮标能够测量昼夜的氧气变化。我们提供识别和消除混淆信号的建议。