Background
The subarctic North Pacific is one of three major high nitrate, low chlorophyll (HNLC) oceanic regions, along with the Southern Ocean and the eastern equatorial Pacific. In these regions, uptake of nitrogen by phytoplankton is widely thought to be regulated by the availability of dissolved iron. The...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.360.1386 http://www.pices.int/publications/scientific_reports/Report31/Rep_31_pp49-56_wsh_absrtacts_4.pdf |
| Summary: | The subarctic North Pacific is one of three major high nitrate, low chlorophyll (HNLC) oceanic regions, along with the Southern Ocean and the eastern equatorial Pacific. In these regions, uptake of nitrogen by phytoplankton is widely thought to be regulated by the availability of dissolved iron. The supply of dissolved iron is twofold: via atmospheric deposition of dust and via upward transport of dissolved iron from the ocean interior to the surface euphotic layer. In the subarctic North Pacific, atmospheric deposition has been considered to be the dominant source, despite little compelling evidence. The subarctic NE Pacific Ocean, in the vicinity of Ocean Station P (OSP), contrasts with the subarctic NW Pacific, because the strong permanent halocline between 100 and 150 m depth in the NE Pacific resists winter mixing deeper than ~120 m and reduces the diffusive upward transport of dissolved nutrients from below the permanent halocline. Long-term observations at OSP, dating back to the 1950s, have given a relatively complete description of the annual cycle in physical properties, nutrients, primary production, phytoplankton chlorophyll, and mesozooplankton. Consequently, a number of modelling studies have used observations from OSP, e.g. Evans and |
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