| Summary: | The annual phytoplankton bloom occurring north of the Crozet Plateau provides a rare opportunity to examine the hypothesis that natural iron fertilisation can alleviate HNLC conditions normally associated with the Southern Ocean. Therefore, during CROZEX, a large multidisciplinary study performed between November 2004 and January 2005, measurements of total dissolved iron (DFe, 0.2 m) were made on seawater from around the islands and atmospheric iron deposition estimated from rain and aerosol samples. DFe concentrations were determined by flow injection analysis with N,N-dimethyl- p-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride (DPD) catalytic spectrophotometric detection. DFe concentrations varied between 0.086 nM and 2.48 nM, with low values in surface waters. Enrichment of dissolved iron (>1 nM) at close proximity to the islands suggests that the plateau and the associated sediments are a source of iron. Waters further north also appear to be affected by this input of coastal and shelf origin, although dissolved iron concentrations decrease as a function of distance to the north
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