The transfer of atmospheric particulate matter through the surface marine layer was studied by comparing atmospheric and marine fluxes. Time series were obtained from the coupling of a coastal atmospheric sampling station (Cap Ferrat, French Riviera) and a marine sampling site (DYFAMED site, central Ligurian Sea). Liquid phase traps were used for measuring total atmospheric fluxes and sediment traps deployed at 200 m depth for measuring marine fluxes. Fluxes of mass, aluminium, and soluble anthropogenic metals (Cd, Pb and Zn) were obtained from both these reservoirs. Physical and biological time series data acquired at the DYFAMED site also were used to describe a three-step seasonal transfer scenario:
(i) In summer and autumn, during the period of water stratification, marine fluxes are low and do not account for the transfer of lithogenic material, as revealed by low Al to mass flux ratios and high proportions of organic carbon at 200 m depth. Atmospheric material accumulates along the thermocline, while a series of physico-chemical processes lead to the formation of small (<=150 µm) non-biogenic organic aggregates.
(ii) In winter, the sinking of dense water that occurs in the Ligurian Sea is responsible for a rapid downward transfer of the lithogenic matter accumulated in the surface layer. The fact that soluble trace metals (e.g., cadmium) accumulated in the surface layer are only partially found in sediment traps may indicate that sorption processes play a minor role in the formation of organic aggregates, compared with coagulation processes.
(iii) In spring, nutrients brought to surface waters by the winter vertical mixing allow phytoplanktonic blooms, and the transfer of atmospheric matter is then governed by the temporal variations of biological activity.
The seasonal variability of the vertical transfer leads to the concept of seasonal variability of elemental residence times in the euphotic layer.
