Revisiting atmospheric dust export to the Southern Hemisphere ocean: Biogeochemical implications

• Published in: Global Biogeochemical Cycles
• Other Authors: Wagener, Thibaut (author), Guieru, Cécile (author), Losno, Rémi (author), Bonnet, Sophie (author), Mahowald, Natalie (author)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2008
• Subjects: Dust; Iron; Southern Hemisphere; Pacific; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-002-937; https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GB002984

Aerosol concentrations in the Southern Hemisphere are largely undersampled. This study presents a chemical and physical description of dust particles collected on board research vessels in the southeast Pacific (SEPS) and the Southern Ocean (SOKS). Concentrations of dust were 6.1 ± 2.4 ng m⁻³ for SEPS and 13.0 ± 6.3 ng m⁻³ for SOKS. Dust fluxes, derived from those concentrations, were 9.9 ± 3.7 μg m⁻³ d⁻³ for SEPS and 38 ± 14 μg m⁻³ d⁻³ for SOKS and are shown to be representative of actual fluxes in those areas. Dust and iron deposition are up to 2 orders of magnitude lower than former predictions. A map of dust deposition on the Southern Hemisphere is proposed by incorporating those in situ measurements into a dust model. This study confirms that dust deposition is not the dominant source of iron to the large high-nutrient low-chlorophyll Southern Ocean.