Early winter barium excess in the southern Indian Ocean as an annual remineralisation proxy (GEOTRACES GIPr07 cruise)

• Published in: Biogeosciences
• Main Authors: N. R. van Horsten, H. Planquette, G. Sarthou, T. J. Ryan-Keogh, N. Lemaitre, T. N. Mtshali, A. Roychoudhury, E. Bucciarelli
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2022
• Subjects: Ecology; QH540-549.5; Life; QH501-531; Geology; QE1-996.5; Southern Ocean; Austral; Indian
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3209-2022; https://doaj.org/article/65f6fb131ed8466c8a4d8812377f060c

The Southern Ocean (SO) is of global importance to the carbon cycle, and processes such as mesopelagic remineralisation that impact the efficiency of the biological carbon pump in this region need to be better constrained. During this study early austral winter barium excess (Ba xs ) concentrations were measured for the first time, along 30 ∘ E in the southern Indian Ocean. Winter Ba xs concentrations of 59 to 684 pmol L −1 were comparable to those observed throughout other seasons. The expected decline of the mesopelagic Ba xs signal to background values during winter was not observed, supporting the hypothesis that this remineralisation proxy likely has a longer timescale than previously reported. A compilation of available SO mesopelagic Ba xs data, including data from this study, shows an accumulation rate of ∼0.9 µ mol m −2 d −1 from September to July that correlates with temporally integrated remotely sensed primary productivity (PP) throughout the SO from data spanning ∼20 years, advocating for a possible annual timescale of this proxy. The percentage of mesopelagic particulate organic carbon (POC) remineralisation as calculated from estimated POC remineralisation fluxes over integrated remotely sensed PP was ∼2 -fold higher south of the polar front (19 ± 15 %, n =39 ) than north of the polar front (10 ± 10 %, n =29 ), revealing the higher surface carbon export efficiency further south. By linking integrated remotely sensed PP to mesopelagic Ba xs stock, we could obtain better estimates of carbon export and remineralisation signals within the SO on annual and basin scales.