Impacts of metals and nutrients released from melting multiyear Arctic sea ice

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research
• Main Authors: Tovar-Sánchez, Antonio, Duarte, Carlos M., Alonso-Santos, Juan Carlos, Lacorte Bruguera, Silvia, Tauler, Romà, Galbán-Malagón, Cristobal
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2010
• Subjects: trace metals; Arctic ice; Arctic; Greenland; Martínez; Fram Strait; International Polar Year; IPY; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10261/44902; https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JC005685

Nutrients (C, N, and P) and metals (iron, molybdenum, nickel, zinc, vanadium, copper, and cobalt) were determined in water and multiyear ice sampled along the Greenland current and Fram Strait in July 2007. Total metal and nutrient concentrations in ice varied fivefold to tenfold, for most elements, across the area sampled. Data show that some nutrients (i.e., NH4+) and metals (i.e., Fe, Zn, V, Cu, Ni, Mo, and Co) are enriched in Arctic ice relative to surface seawaters, suggesting that ice melting is a significant source of metals to the receiving seawaters, particularly Fe and Zn whose concentrations were significantly (t test, P < 0.05) more than 2 orders of magnitude higher in ice than in surface seawater. This research is part of the ATOS project, funded as part of the Spanish contribution to the International Polar Year (IPY) by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (POL2006-00550/CTM). This is a contribution to the GEOTRACES cluster of the IPY. We thank the ATOS participants, UTM and crew of R/V Hespérides for help with ice sampling and logistics. We thank R. Santiago, R. Martínez, and A. Massanet at IMEDEA and J. A. González (SCT, UIB) for help with chemical analyses. This manuscript was written in the field stations of Ses Salines Lighthouse. Peer reviewed