Surface-water iron supplies in the Southern Ocean sustained by deep winter mixing

Tagliabue, Alessandro; Sallee, Jean-Baptiste; Bowie, Andrew R.; Lévy, Marina; Swart, Sebastiaan; Boyd, Philip W.. 2014 Surface-water iron supplies in the Southern Ocean sustained by deep winter mixing. Nature Geoscience, 7 (4). 314-320. 10.1038/ngeo2101

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Text This is the accepted version of Tagliabue et al. Surface-water iron supplies in the Southern Ocean sustained by deep winter mixing. Nature Geosci 7, 314–320 (2014) doi:10.1038/ngeo2101 Tagliabue_etal_2014_NGS_submitted_final.pdf - Accepted Version Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract/Summary

Low levels of iron limit primary productivity across much of the Southern Ocean. At the basin scale, most dissolved iron is supplied to surface waters from subsurface reservoirs, because land inputs are spatially limited. Deep mixing in winter together with year-round diffusion across density surfaces, known as diapycnal diffusion, are the main physical processes that carry iron-laden subsurface waters to the surface. Here, we analyse data on dissolved iron concentrations in the top 1,000 m of the Southern Ocean, taken from all known and available cruises to date, together with hydrographic data to determine the relative importance of deep winter mixing and diapycnal diffusion to dissolved iron fluxes at the basin scale. Using information on the vertical distribution of iron we show that deep winter mixing supplies ten times more iron to the surface ocean each year, on average, than diapycnal diffusion. Biological observations from the sub-Antarctic sector suggest that following the depletion of this wintertime iron pulse, intense iron recycling sustains productivity over the subsequent spring and summer. We conclude that winter mixing and surface-water iron recycling are important drivers of temporal variations in Southern Ocean primary production.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1038/ngeo2101
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > Polar Science for Planet Earth (2009 - ) > Polar Oceans
ISSN:	1752-0894
NORA Subject Terms:	Marine Sciences Chemistry
Date made live:	25 Mar 2014 11:20 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/506663

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