Trace Metal Fluxes of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn From the Congo River Into the South Atlantic Ocean Are Supplemented by Atmospheric Inputs

Abstract The Congo River supplies vast quantities of trace metals (TMs) to the South Atlantic Ocean, but TM budgets for the Congo plume derived using radium isotopes for GEOTRACES cruise GA08 suggest additional input other than the river outflow. Considering the tight correlations between most disso...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Te Liu, Mark J. Hopwood, Stephan Krisch, Lúcia H. Vieira, Eric P. Achterberg
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2023
Subjects:
trace metals
Congo plume
wet depositions
Congo River
GEOTRACES
Geophysics. Cosmic physics
QC801-809
North Atlantic
South Atlantic Ocean
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL107150
https://doaj.org/article/c9681af71f9547feb206899ecb0f0c5b
Description
Summary:Abstract The Congo River supplies vast quantities of trace metals (TMs) to the South Atlantic Ocean, but TM budgets for the Congo plume derived using radium isotopes for GEOTRACES cruise GA08 suggest additional input other than the river outflow. Considering the tight correlations between most dissolved TMs and salinity in the plume and the high rainfall during the wet season over the Congo shelf, we hypothesized that wet atmospheric deposition is a TM source to the Congo plume. Observed TM concentrations in rainwaters across the Congo shelf were mostly comparable to values from previous work in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. Wet deposition contributed the equivalent of 43% dCd, 21% dCu, 20% dPb and 68% dZn of the Congo River fluxes. Our findings show an important role of wet deposition in supplying TMs to the South Atlantic overlapping with the region that receives substantial TM fluxes from the Congo River.

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