Lateral advection affects the spatial distribution of dissolved substances in the ocean but very few studies, so far, have been devoted to describe and quantify its impact on the distribution of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) which, in oligotrophic environments, accounts for the largest fraction of chemical energy. In this contribution, using an integrated approach, we explore the importance of surface advection on carbon dynamics in the Western Mediterranean Sea, where strong inter-basin differences in primary production do exist. Detailed information on the surface circulation, derived from high-resolution model simulations, is combined with the analysis of spatially resolved, accurate DOC vertical profiles, repeated over time. Our data show that surface circulation plays a crucial role in regulating DOC concentrations and distributions in the Tyrrhenian Sea and that horizontal transport of DOC into the Tyrrhenian Sea is of the same order of magnitude as in-situ DOC production. Our study addresses this process for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, whose small size allows for fast, inter-basin transfer times which, in turn, favors the preservation of the DOC stock produced elsewhere. We highlight that this mechanism may be important also in other regions of the oceans, where surface advection may set up a sort of compensation among regions with different trophic regimes, thus smoothing trophic gradients. We posit that understanding these transport processes is a crucial and preliminary step to understand and quantify all the other processes (biological, chemical, geological) that influence DOC distribution on a variety of timescales.

横向平流影响海洋中溶解物质的空间分布，但迄今为止，很少有研究描述和量化其对溶解性有机碳（DOC）分布的影响，在贫营养环境中，DOC占最大比例化学能。在这项贡献中，我们采用综合方法探讨了平流对西地中海碳动态的重要性，在西地中海确实存在严重的流域间盆地差异。来自高分辨率模型仿真的关于表面循环的详细信息与对空间分辨的，准确的DOC垂直剖面的分析相结合，并随时间重复进行。我们的数据表明，地表环流在调节第勒尼安海中DOC的浓度和分布方面起着至关重要的作用，而DOC在第勒尼安海中的水平运输与原位DOC生产的数量级相同。我们的研究首次在地中海解决了这一过程，其体积小，可实现快速的流域间转移，这反过来又有利于保护其他地方生产的DOC。我们着重指出，这种机制在海洋的其他区域也可能很重要，在这些区域中，表面对流可能会在具有不同营养体制的区域之间建立某种补偿，从而平滑营养梯度。我们认为，了解这些运输过程是了解和量化所有其他过程（生物，化学，