Ocean density stratification is increasing across multiple ocean basins due to a warming surface ocean and increasing sea ice melt. Pycnocline stratification plays a leading order role in the movement of water between the surface and interior ocean, or ocean ventilation. As a result, stratification shapes the ocean’s capacity for heat and carbon uptake and makes it a key parameter of interest on timescales ranging from paleoclimate to plankton blooms. Part of the challenge in assessing the role of pycnocline stratification in global models is the two-way connection between physical processes at the mesoscale and submesoscale (O(1-100 km)) and stratification. Using idealized high-resolution numerical simulations, we find that the strength of pycnocline stratification influences the formation and evolution of submesoscale structure and the resulting vertical transport of oceanic tracers. Submesoscale anticyclonic eddies efficiently transfer tracer across the base of the mixed layer in reduced stratification conditions. In contrast to previous results with coarser-resolution models, increased stratification does not result in reduced downward tracer flux. We suggest that tracer subduction fluxes reach a “plateau” with changing stratification, with vital implications for our ability to diagnose to predict trends in carbon uptake and storage, particularly in the polar oceans.