Biomass accumulation was assessed by subtracting phytoplankton mortality (due to microzooplankton) from phytoplankton growth rates. Rates of phytoplankton growth and microzooplankton grazing were assessed daily with the dilution technique (Landry and Hassett 1982; doi:10.1007/BF00397668), following the two treatment approach (Landry, Haas et al. 1984 doi:10.3354/meps016127), at six depths within the euphotic zone. We implemented this mini-dilution approach to generate vertically resolved growth and grazing rates, but also conducted a full dilution experiment on the last day of each of the cycles (n = 5) to test linearity assumptions of the method. Seawater collected with the Niskin bottles attached to the CTD rosette at 02:00 h was used to fill a pair of 2.2-L polycarbonate bottles (100%, B and C) while a third bottle (A) was filled with 25% whole seawater diluted with 0.2-µm filtered seawater obtained immediately before by gravity filtration using an Acropak filter cartridge (Pall) directly from the same Niskin bottle. Nutrients (final concentrations in 2.2L bottles; nitrate 0.18 μM, ammonium 4.16 μM, phosphate 15.08, silicate 44.2 μM, and vitamins) were added to bottles A and B in order to ensure the assumption that the same phytoplankton intrinsic growth rate was occurring in WSW and FSW bottles despite dilution (Gutiérrez‐Rodríguez, Safi et al. 2020 doi:10.1029/2019JC015550). Bottles were then incubated in situ at the same six depths of collection using a drifting array. Rates were calculated from changes in Chl a concentration and picophytoplankton abundance between the beginning and end of the experiment assuming exponential growth of phytoplankton. Microzooplankton grazing rate was estimated from: µ = (kA – kB)/(1-x) where kA and kB are the observed net rates of change of chl a in bottles A and B, respectively, and x is the fraction of whole seawater in the diluted bottle A (0.25). Phytoplankton growth rate was estimated from µ =m+kB. Photoacclimation effects were corrected from changes in cell chl a fluorescence estimated by flow cytometry during incubations as a proxy of cell chl a content (Gutierrez-Rodriguez, Latasa et al. 2010 doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2009.12.013). These include estimating the photoacclimation index (Phi) from changes in FL3: FSC and calculating an average value from Phi index obtained for pico- and nanoeukaryotic populations weighted by their biomass contribution. Accumulation was calculated by subtracting the C-based estimates of microzooplankton grazing (from the dilution experiments) from the 14C-based NPP.

Empty cells = ndThis study was funded by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) of New Zealand, NIWA core programmes Coast and Oceans Food Webs (COES- COES1901) and Ocean Flows (COOF-COOF1902), the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fast-track award to Moira Décima, and NSF award #OCE-1756610 to Michael R. Stukel and Karen E. Selph.