The silicon isotopic composition of surface waters in the Atlantic and Indian sectors of the Southern Ocean

• Published in: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
• Main Authors: de La Rocha, Christina, L., Bescont, Pierre, Croguennoc, Alice, Ponzevera, Emmanuel
• Other Authors: Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Environnement Marin (LEMAR) (LEMAR), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (IUEM), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire Géodynamique et enregistrement Sédimentaire (LGS), Géosciences Marines (GM), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), LEFE-CYBER (project SIMS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2011
• Subjects: silicon isotopes; Southern Ocean; [SDU.STU.OC]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Oceanography; Antarctic; Drake Passage; Indian; Kerguelen; The Antarctic; Weddell; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal.univ-brest.fr/hal-00660777; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2011.06.028

International audience We report here the silicon isotopic composition (d30Si) of dissolved silicon (DSi) from 42 surface water samples from the Drake Passage, the Weddell Gyre, other areas south of the Southern Boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), and the ACC near the Kerguelen Plateau, taken between the beginning of February and the end of March 2007. From the beginning to end of the cruise (ANTXXIII/9), DSi diminished in the Antarctic by 50 umol L-1 while concentrations of nitrate + nitrite and phosphate showed no net decline, indicating that the high seasonal Si/N removal ratios well known for the Southern Ocean may be more related to the strength of the silicate pump in the Southern Ocean than to the instantaneous Si/N uptake ratio of diatoms. The d30Si of DSi in samples containing more than 20 lM DSi were strongly negatively correlated to DSi concentrations, supporting the use of d30Si as a proxy for DSi removal. The "open system" fractionation observed, e = -1.2 ± 0.11&, agrees well with results from previous work in other areas, and the estimate of the initial d30Si of DSi of +1.4& is not far off observations of the d30Si of DSi in Winter Water (WW) in this area. Results were used to model DSi draw down in the past from the d30Si of sediment cores, although isotopic fractionation during silica dissolution appeared to influence the d30Si of some surface water samples, inviting further study of this phenomenon.