As funded by natural science foundation of China (NSFC) since 2018, this project focus on the submesoscale variability and the temporal evolution of the biogeochemistry especially the export productivity within the mesoscale cyclonic eddies. In doing so, a month-long campaign will be carried out in the prominent cyclonic eddies in the Northwest Pacific Ocean off Taiwan in spring of 2019 (Eddy SILICON). Three critical questions are proposed for this survey:

• How do submesoscale processes of a cyclonic eddy modulate the spatial variability of carbon and opal exports?
• how does eddy evolution affect carbon and opal exports?
• Are the exports of carbon and opal coupled or decoupled on the spatial scale during the submesoscale variability and on the temporal scale during eddy evolution?

In order to answer these questions, one needs to better understand the 4-D variability of the eddy physics. Therefore, we will use a Moving Vessel Profiler(MVP) to obtain a high spatial resolution of 3-D physical structure of the cyclonic eddies. 11 bio-gliders supported by Shenyang Institute of Automation will also be deployed for a short-term temporal evolution of such 3-D pictures, and 2 bio-argos supported by the Second Institute of Oceanology will be used to get a long-term temporal variation of both eddy physics and biogeochemistry. 

A multidisciplinary manner will used to approach the questions proposed. Multiple measurements during the cruise will be carried out, e.g. export fluxes of carbon and silica, community composition by microscopic inspection and flow cytometry, primary production by fast ocean and carbon-14, nitrogen fixation and N₂O production, zooplankton grazing, bacterial production, size-fractionation information of the marine particles and etc.

We content that the project is crucial in better understanding the biological carbon pump of the cyclonic eddies and its role in the global carbon cycle.