Disentangling Carbon Concentration Changes Along Pathways of North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water

North Atlantic subtropical mode water (NASTMW) serves as a major conduit for dissolved carbon to penetrate into the ocean interior by its wintertime outcropping events. Prior research on NASTMW has concentrated on its physical formation and destruction, as well as Lagrangian pathways and timescales of water into and out of NASTMW. In this study, we examine how dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) concentrations are modified along Lagrangian pathways of NASTMW on subannual timescales. We introduce Lagrangian parcels into a physical-biogeochemical model and release these parcels annually over two decades. For different pathways into, out of, and within NASTMW, we calculate changes in DIC concentrations along the path (Delta DIC), distinguishing contributions from vertical mixing and biogeochemical processes. The strongest Delta DIC is during subduction of water parcels (+101 mu mol L-1 in 1 year), followed by transport out of NASTMW due to increases in density in water parcels (+10 mu mol L-1). While the mean Delta DIC for parcels that persist within NASTMW in 1 year is relatively small at +6 mu mol L-1, this masks underlying dynamics: individual parcels undergo interspersed DIC depletion and enrichment, spanning several timescales and magnitudes. Most DIC enrichment and depletion regimes span timescales of weeks, related to phytoplankton blooms. However, mixing and biogeochemical processes often oppose one another at short timescales, so the largest net DIC changes occur at timescales of more than 30 days. Our new Lagrangian approach complements bulk Eulerian approaches, which average out this underlying complexity, and is relevant to other biogeochemical studies, for example, on marine carbon dioxide removal. Mode waters are relatively thick water masses with homogeneous properties, such as temperature and salinity. The North Atlantic subtropical mode water (NASTMW), found in the Sargasso Sea, is one such water mass. Lying underneath the ocean surface, it comes into contact with the atmosphere during winter, when the surface layer is vigorously mixed due to strong winds, causing the mixed layer to connect with NASTMW. This way, NASTMW can buffer atmospheric temperature and carbon anomalies during the summer, when there is no surface connection. It is also a conduit for carbon to penetrate beneath the ocean's upper mixed layer, with the potential to sequester it. We study NASTMW from the viewpoint of a water parcel that moves with the currents and see how carbon concentrations in the water parcels change along different NASTMW pathways. For each pathway, the carbon concentration changes due to an interplay of vertical mixing and biogeochemical processes, for example, related to plankton growth and decay. These processes can unfold over different timescales and may counteract or enhance themselves or one another. The largest change in carbon concentration is found when a parcel moves from the upper ocean mixed layer into NASTMW, mostly due to vertical mixing. Carbon transformations along pathways of North Atlantic Subtropical Mode Water are split into mixing and biogeochemical contributions Along paths into, within, and out of this mode water, mixing and biogeochemistry alter carbon in water parcels over a range of timescales Enrichment is highest during mixed layer subduction, which few parcels undergo annually; persistence in mode water is the dominant pathway