Effects of dry and wet Saharan dust deposition in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean
Incubation experiments comprising Saharan dust additions were conducted in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean along an east-west transect at 12° N to study the phytoplankton response to nutrient release in oligotrophic seawater conditions. Experiments were performed at three stations (M1, M3, M4), mi...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:bgd72950 2023-05-15T17:33:16+02:00 Effects of dry and wet Saharan dust deposition in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean Korte, Laura F. Pausch, Franziska Trimborn, Scarlett Brussaard, Corina P. D. Brummer, Geert-Jan A. Does, Michèlle Guerreiro, Catarina V. Schreuder, Laura T. Munday, Chris I. Stuut, Jan-Berend W. 2018-12-05 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2018-484 https://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/bg-2018-484/ eng eng doi:10.5194/bg-2018-484 https://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/bg-2018-484/ eISSN: 1726-4189 Text 2018 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2018-484 2019-12-24T09:49:38Z Incubation experiments comprising Saharan dust additions were conducted in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean along an east-west transect at 12° N to study the phytoplankton response to nutrient release in oligotrophic seawater conditions. Experiments were performed at three stations (M1, M3, M4), mimicking wet and dry deposition of low and high amounts of Saharan dust deposition from two different dust sources (paleo-lake and sand dune). Dust particle sizes were adjusted to resemble dust that is naturally deposited over the ocean at the experiment sites. For wet dust deposition, the dust was pre-leached in acidified ‘artificial rainwater’ (H 2 SO 4 ) for 16 to 24 hours, mimicking acid cloud processing at different pH values. Experiments were run up to eight days. Daily nutrient measurements of phosphate (PO 4 3 − ), silicate (SiO 4 4 − ), nitrate (NO 3 − ) and cell abundances were performed in addition to measurements of concentrations of total dissolved iron (DFe), particulate organic carbon (POC), and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) at the start and at the end of the experiments. A significant initial increase and subsequent gradual decrease in PO 4 3 − , SiO 4 4 − and DFe concentrations were observed after wet dust deposition using high amounts of dust previously leached in low pH rain (H 2 SO 4 , pH = 2). Remarkably, the experiments showed no nutrient release (PO 4 3 − , SiO 4 4 − and DFe) from dry-dust addition and the NO 3 − concentrations remained unaffected in all (dry and wet) experiments. The prokaryotic cyanobacterium Synechococcus spp. was the most prominent picophytoplankton in all mixed layer experiments. After an initial increase in cell abundance, a subsequent decrease (at M1) or a slight increase (at M3) with similar temporal dynamics was observed for dry and wet dust deposition experiments. The POC concentrations increased in all experiments and showed similar high values after both dry and wet dust deposition treatments, even though wet dust deposition is considered to have a higher potential to introduce bioavailable nutrients (i.e. PO 4 3 − , SiO 4 4 − and DFe) into the otherwise nutrient-starved oligotrophic ocean. Our observations suggest that such nutrients may be more likely to favor the growth of the phytoplankton community when an additional N-source is also available. In addition to acting as a fertilizer, our results from both dry and wet dust deposition experiments suggest that Saharan dust particles might be incorporated into marine snow aggregates leading to similar high POC concentrations. Text North Atlantic Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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English |
description |
Incubation experiments comprising Saharan dust additions were conducted in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean along an east-west transect at 12° N to study the phytoplankton response to nutrient release in oligotrophic seawater conditions. Experiments were performed at three stations (M1, M3, M4), mimicking wet and dry deposition of low and high amounts of Saharan dust deposition from two different dust sources (paleo-lake and sand dune). Dust particle sizes were adjusted to resemble dust that is naturally deposited over the ocean at the experiment sites. For wet dust deposition, the dust was pre-leached in acidified ‘artificial rainwater’ (H 2 SO 4 ) for 16 to 24 hours, mimicking acid cloud processing at different pH values. Experiments were run up to eight days. Daily nutrient measurements of phosphate (PO 4 3 − ), silicate (SiO 4 4 − ), nitrate (NO 3 − ) and cell abundances were performed in addition to measurements of concentrations of total dissolved iron (DFe), particulate organic carbon (POC), and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) at the start and at the end of the experiments. A significant initial increase and subsequent gradual decrease in PO 4 3 − , SiO 4 4 − and DFe concentrations were observed after wet dust deposition using high amounts of dust previously leached in low pH rain (H 2 SO 4 , pH = 2). Remarkably, the experiments showed no nutrient release (PO 4 3 − , SiO 4 4 − and DFe) from dry-dust addition and the NO 3 − concentrations remained unaffected in all (dry and wet) experiments. The prokaryotic cyanobacterium Synechococcus spp. was the most prominent picophytoplankton in all mixed layer experiments. After an initial increase in cell abundance, a subsequent decrease (at M1) or a slight increase (at M3) with similar temporal dynamics was observed for dry and wet dust deposition experiments. The POC concentrations increased in all experiments and showed similar high values after both dry and wet dust deposition treatments, even though wet dust deposition is considered to have a higher potential to introduce bioavailable nutrients (i.e. PO 4 3 − , SiO 4 4 − and DFe) into the otherwise nutrient-starved oligotrophic ocean. Our observations suggest that such nutrients may be more likely to favor the growth of the phytoplankton community when an additional N-source is also available. In addition to acting as a fertilizer, our results from both dry and wet dust deposition experiments suggest that Saharan dust particles might be incorporated into marine snow aggregates leading to similar high POC concentrations. |
format |
Text |
author |
Korte, Laura F. Pausch, Franziska Trimborn, Scarlett Brussaard, Corina P. D. Brummer, Geert-Jan A. Does, Michèlle Guerreiro, Catarina V. Schreuder, Laura T. Munday, Chris I. Stuut, Jan-Berend W. |
spellingShingle |
Korte, Laura F. Pausch, Franziska Trimborn, Scarlett Brussaard, Corina P. D. Brummer, Geert-Jan A. Does, Michèlle Guerreiro, Catarina V. Schreuder, Laura T. Munday, Chris I. Stuut, Jan-Berend W. Effects of dry and wet Saharan dust deposition in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean |
author_facet |
Korte, Laura F. Pausch, Franziska Trimborn, Scarlett Brussaard, Corina P. D. Brummer, Geert-Jan A. Does, Michèlle Guerreiro, Catarina V. Schreuder, Laura T. Munday, Chris I. Stuut, Jan-Berend W. |
author_sort |
Korte, Laura F. |
title |
Effects of dry and wet Saharan dust deposition in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean |
title_short |
Effects of dry and wet Saharan dust deposition in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean |
title_full |
Effects of dry and wet Saharan dust deposition in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean |
title_fullStr |
Effects of dry and wet Saharan dust deposition in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effects of dry and wet Saharan dust deposition in the tropical North Atlantic Ocean |
title_sort |
effects of dry and wet saharan dust deposition in the tropical north atlantic ocean |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2018-484 https://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/bg-2018-484/ |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
eISSN: 1726-4189 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/bg-2018-484 https://www.biogeosciences-discuss.net/bg-2018-484/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2018-484 |
_version_ |
1766131724701401088 |