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† Equal contribution

      ABSTRACT

      Oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) enclose O2 depleted subsurface water masses in the global ocean extending approximately 150 to 1200 m below sea level. The most pronounced OMZs occur in Eastern Tropical North Pacific off Mexico and California (ETNP), Eastern Tropical South Pacific off Peru and Chile (ETSP), and the Arabian Sea (AS) defined by secondary nitrite maxima attributed to intense denitrification in the water column. These OMZs sites are critical for biogeochemical processes that control the biodiversity and primary productivity of the ocean. The preservation of organic carbon is efficient within the sediments underlying oxygen‐depleted waters as a result of incomplete decomposition as it sinks through the water column and diminished bioturbation activity. The partially degraded (reactive) organic matter fuels microbe‐mediated biogeochemical processes in the anoxic marine sediments where sulfate reduction is a significant remineralization pathway. The OMZs exert a strong influence on the abundance, diversity, and composition of microbial communities. Recent geochemical and environmental genomic studies identified the prevalence of C, N, and S cycles in the OMZs. Here, we review the progress and current understanding of the C–S–N cycle in the OMZ sediments with regard to its biogeochemistry and microbial ecology, and present a brief account of the mechanism of the formation of OMZs in the northern Indian Ocean.

Schematic illustration of global annual oxygen concentration (ml l–1) at 150 mbsl.

      Source: World Ocean Atlas 2009.

      1.1.1. The Arabian Sea Oxygen Minimum Zone

Schematic illustration of annual oxygen concentration (μmol l–1) in the water column of the Indian Ocean.

      The ASOMZ shows an east–west variation in structure, where the upper part (400 m) is located in the central/eastern basin, and the lower part (below 400 m) extends to the Omani coast, indicating a northward intensification of the ASOMZ (McCreary et al., 2013). The PGW water enters the ASOMZ from the northwest at shallow depths of – 300 m and spreads around the perimeter of the basin and southward along the Omani coast (Prasad et al., 2001), and the denser RSW encroaches to depths of 600–1000 m and spreads across the basin (Shankar et al., 2005; Shenoi et al., 2005).

      A poleward undercurrent (West India Undercurrent, WIUC) carries the ICW northwards into the eastern Arabian Sea (EAS) up to 16°N at a water depth of – 500 m (Shenoy et al., 2020; Schmidt et al., 2020a). In the EAS, the OMZ expands southwards during the SW monsoon (~ 9°N) and retreats northwards during the NE monsoon (11°N) (Shenoy et al., 2020). Although the productivity across the EAS is significantly lower compared with that of the Western Arabian Sea (WAS), the OMZ is more intense in the central and eastern AS (Naqvi, 1991). This observation may be attributed to one or more hypotheses, including:

       water column O2 consumption (via respiration of organic matter) during eastward transit of ICW from Somali coast to the west coast of India (McCreary et al., 2013; Acharyya and Panigrahi, 2016; Rixen et al., 2020);

       rapid sinking of the large phytoplankton detritus in the upwelling regions of the WAS (Naqvi et al., 2010b) results in minimum respiration, alternatively, the slow sinking rate of organic matter (Hood et al., 2009) produced in the WAS and subsequent eastwardly advection of the organic particulates leads to DO depletion in central and eastern AS;

       effective renewal

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