ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS IN THE DEEP WATER OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC1

• Published in: Limnology and Oceanography
• Main Authors: McGill, David A., Corwin, Nathaniel, Ketchum, Bostwick H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1964
• Subjects: Aquatic Science; Oceanography; North Atlantic; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.4319/lo.1964.9.1.0027; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.4319%2Flo.1964.9.1.0027; https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.4319/lo.1964.9.1.0027

Differences in the concentrations of inorganic phosphate and of total phosphorus in sea‐water are interpreted as representing the presence of organically bound phosphorus. This fraction is negligible in most of the deep water of the North Atlantic but was present in substantial amounts in the western end of a section at 40° N lat sampled during the International Geophysical Year program in October 1957. Repeated observations in a section between Woods Hole and Bermuda and at a station south of Bermuda during the period 1958–61 have demonstrated variations in organic phosphorus in deep water which follow approximately a seasonal cycle and which appear to be related to variations in salinity. During 1959, when the salinity of the water was most nearly constant, the organic phosphorus disappeared from the deep water at a rate of approximately 0.1 µ g‐at./(liter × year), which is considered an uncorrected estimate of decomposition in situ. Possible sources of the organic phosphorus in the deep water are discussed. The most probable source appears to be in the low‐salinity subarctic intermediate water.