Pyrogenic iron: The missing link to high iron solubility in aerosols

• Published in: Science Advances
• Main Authors: Ito, Akinori, Myriokefalitakis, Stelios, Kanakidou, Maria, Mahowald, Natalie, Scanza, Rachel, Hamilton, Douglas, Baker, Alex, Jickells, Timothy, D, Sarin, Manmohan, Bikkina, Srinivas, Gao, Yuan, Shelley, Rachel, Buck, Clifton, Landing, William, Bowie, Andrew, R., Perron, Morgane, Guieu, Cécile, Meskhidze, Nicholas, Johnson, Matthew, Feng, Yan, Kok, Jasper, Nenes, Athanasios, Duce, Robert
• Other Authors: Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory Heraklion (ECPL), Department of Chemistry Heraklion, University of Crete Heraklion (UOC)-University of Crete Heraklion (UOC), Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Ithaca) (EAS), Cornell University New York, University of East Anglia Norwich (UEA), Institut de Recherche Dupuy de Lôme (IRDL), École Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Brest (ENIB)-Université de Bretagne Sud (UBS)-Université de Brest (UBO)-École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées Bretagne (ENSTA Bretagne)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Florida State University Tallahassee (FSU), Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE-CRC), Laboratoire d'océanographie de Villefranche (LOV), Observatoire océanologique de Villefranche-sur-mer (OOVM), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Durham University, Institute for Environmental Research & Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens (NOA)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02366983; https://hal.science/hal-02366983/document; https://hal.science/hal-02366983/file/eaau7671.full.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aau7671

International audience Atmospheric deposition is a source of potentially bioavailable iron (Fe) and thus can partially control biological productivity in large parts of the ocean. However, the explanation of observed high aerosol Fe solubility compared to that in soil particles is still controversial, as several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this observation. Here, a statistical analysis of aerosol Fe solubility estimated from four models and observations compiled from multiple field campaigns suggests that pyrogenic aerosols are the main sources of aerosols with high Fe solubility at low concentration. Additionally, we find that field data over the Southern Ocean display a much wider range in aerosol Fe solubility compared to the models, which indicate an underestimation of labile Fe concentrations by a factor of 15. These findings suggest that pyrogenic Fe-containing aerosols are important sources of atmospheric bioavailable Fe to the open ocean and crucial for predicting anthropogenic perturbations to marine productivity.