234Th dynamics during a late spring phytoplankton bloom in the eastern Weddell Sea: a high temporal resolution study

• Main Authors: Rodriguez y Baena, A. M., Masqué, P., Miquel, J. C., Isla, E., La Rosa, J., Azemard, S., Wyse, E., Brey, Thomas
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Weddell; Weddell Sea; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/10935/; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.21403

234Th is a naturally occurring radionuclide constantly produced in sea water by its soluble parent 238U. Due to its high reactivity to particles and relatively short half-life (T1/2 = 24.1 days), 234Th is used as an effective and suitable proxy for describing biogeochemical processes occurring over timescales of days to weeks in the upper water column.In a rapidly changing environment, akin to the water column during the Antarctic spring-summer transition, a study of short timescale alterations of the 234Th/238U equilibrium can significantly improve the understanding of the forces driving exceptional events such as an incipient phytoplankton bloom