Biological uptake and reversible scavenging of zinc in the global ocean

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Weber, Thomas, John, Seth, Tagliabue, Alessandro, DeVries, Tim
• Other Authors: National Science Foundation, Simons Foundation, Natural Environment Research Council
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2018
• Subjects: Southern Ocean
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aap8532; https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1126/science.aap8532; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.aap8532

Controlling zinc in the oceans Zinc, a key micronutrient for marine phytoplankton, has a global distribution remarkably similar to that of silicic acid, even though Zn and Si have very different biogeochemical cycles. Weber et al. investigated why this is so by combining model calculations and observations. They found that biological uptake in the Southern Ocean and reversible scavenging of Zn onto sinking particles both affect the distribution of Zn in the ocean. Thus, Zn and Si distributions will be affected differently by future changes in ocean temperature, pH, and carbon fluxes. Science , this issue p. 72