Distribution, Occurrence, and Fate of Biogenic Dimethylated Sulfur Compounds in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea During Spring

Abstract

Abstract The spatial distributions of biogenic dimethylated sulfur compounds (BDSCs), including dimethylsulfide (DMS), dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), and dimethylsulfoxide, were determined in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea during a survey in April–May 2014 and the occurrence and fate of BDSCs in the surface seawater were investigated. The concentrations of DMS and DMSP were significantly correlated with the stocks of chlorophyll a and a decreasing trend was observed from the inshore to the offshore areas. In situ incubation experiments indicated that more than half of the degraded dissolved DMSP (DMSPd) was transformed into DMS. Irradiation experiments showed that the photooxidation of DMS under ultraviolet B, ultraviolet A, and visible light accounted for 23.9%, 71.8%, and 4.3% of the total photooxidation of DMS, respectively. The sea‐to‐air fluxes of DMS ranged from 0.24 to 34.11 μmol m −2 day −1 with a mean of 8.84 μmol m −2 day −1 . A comparison of the DMS production rate and main removal rates indicated that bioproduction cannot completely maintain the removal of DMS and might not be the only but the primary source of DMS in the surface seawater. Additionally, the average turnover times of microbial consumption, photooxidation, and sea‐to‐air exchange of DMS were 1.53, 1.16, and 4.28 day and the contributions of the three removal pathways were 40.0%, 41.2%, and 18.8% respectively; this indicated that microbial consumption and photooxidation played dominant roles in controlling the removal of DMS from the surface seawater.