Studies of ocean biogeochemical fluxes have been energized in this decade,
by the urgency of our need to understand and predict the effects of
continued CO
accumulation in the atmosphere, by the global
perspectives offered by satellite views of ocean color and related
physical fields [ Yoder et al., 1992; Mitchell, 1994; Arrigo
and McClain, 1994], and by the successful implementation of the Joint
Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS); [ Bowles and Livingston, 1993].
In this review, I focus on oceanic new product ion, originally defined
as the fraction of primary production supported by inputs of `new'
nitrogen from outside the euphotic zone. With a growing appreciation
of the role of this fundamental biogeochemical flux in the global carbon
cycle, it has become more common to refer interchangeably to new
production so defined, and to the export of organic matter from the
upper ocean (e.g. [ Sarmiento and Siegenthaler, 1992]. New
production, the driving process of the ocean carbon cycle, is
responsible for maintaining over half the vertical gradient in
total inorganic carbon. In this review I refer to nitrate-based
new production in the open sea, and not to new production supported
by other N compounds as observed in the coastal zone. Eppley
[1992] gives a personal view of the modern formulation of the concept
of equivalence between new production and upper ocean export. This
review is dedicated to the memory of John Martin, a friend, colleague,
leader and teacher who contributed mightily to our field.