Volcanic ash supply to the surface ocean – remote sensing of biological responses and their wider biogeochemical significance
Transient micronutrient enrichment of the surface ocean can enhance phytoplankton growth rates and alter microbial community structure with an ensuing spectrum of biogeochemical feedbacks. Strong phytoplankton responses to micronutrients supplied by volcanic ash have been reported recently. Here we:...
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ftplymouthml:oai:plymsea.ac.uk:6336 2023-05-15T18:25:54+02:00 Volcanic ash supply to the surface ocean – remote sensing of biological responses and their wider biogeochemical significance Browning, T Stone, K Bouman, H Mather, TA Pyle, DM Martinez-Vicente, V Lohan, M 2015-03-03 text http://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/6336/ http://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/6336/1/fmars-02-00014.pdf https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2015.00014/full https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00014 en eng http://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/6336/1/fmars-02-00014.pdf Browning, T; Stone, K; Bouman, H; Mather, TA; Pyle, DM; Martinez-Vicente, V. 2015 Volcanic ash supply to the surface ocean – remote sensing of biological responses and their wider biogeochemical significance. Frontiers in Marine Science, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00014 <https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00014> cc_by_4 CC-BY Earth Observation - Remote Sensing Marine Sciences Oceanography Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2015 ftplymouthml https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00014 2022-09-13T05:48:35Z Transient micronutrient enrichment of the surface ocean can enhance phytoplankton growth rates and alter microbial community structure with an ensuing spectrum of biogeochemical feedbacks. Strong phytoplankton responses to micronutrients supplied by volcanic ash have been reported recently. Here we: (i) synthesize findings from these recent studies; (ii) report the results of a new remote sensing study of ash fertilization; and (iii) calculate theoretical bounds of ash-fertilized carbon export. Our synthesis highlights that phytoplankton responses to ash do not always simply mimic that of iron amendment; the exact mechanisms for this are likely biogeochemically important but are not yet well understood. Inherent optical properties of ash-loaded seawater suggest rhyolitic ash biases routine satellite chlorophyll-a estimation upwards by more than an order of magnitude for waters with <0.1 mg chlorophyll-a m-3, and less than a factor of 2 for systems with >0.5 mg chlorophyll-a m-3. For this reason post-ash-deposition chlorophyll-a changes in oligotrophic waters detected via standard Case 1 (open ocean) algorithms should be interpreted with caution. Remote sensing analysis of historic events with a bias less than a factor of 2 provided limited stand-alone evidence for ash-fertilization. Confounding factors were poor coverage, incoherent ash dispersal, and ambiguity ascribing biomass changes to ash supply over other potential drivers. Using current estimates of iron release and carbon export efficiencies, uncertainty bounds of ash-fertilized carbon export for 3 events are presented. Patagonian iron supply to the Southern Ocean from volcanic eruptions is less than that of windblown dust on thousand year timescales but can dominate supply at shorter timescales. Reducing uncertainties in remote sensing of phytoplankton response and nutrient release from ash are avenues for enabling assessment of the oceanic response to large-scale transient nutrient enrichment. Article in Journal/Newspaper Southern Ocean Plymouth Marine Science Electronic Archive (PlyMSEA - Plymouth Marine Laboratory, PML) Southern Ocean Frontiers in Marine Science 2 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Plymouth Marine Science Electronic Archive (PlyMSEA - Plymouth Marine Laboratory, PML) |
op_collection_id |
ftplymouthml |
language |
English |
topic |
Earth Observation - Remote Sensing Marine Sciences Oceanography |
spellingShingle |
Earth Observation - Remote Sensing Marine Sciences Oceanography Browning, T Stone, K Bouman, H Mather, TA Pyle, DM Martinez-Vicente, V Volcanic ash supply to the surface ocean – remote sensing of biological responses and their wider biogeochemical significance |
topic_facet |
Earth Observation - Remote Sensing Marine Sciences Oceanography |
description |
Transient micronutrient enrichment of the surface ocean can enhance phytoplankton growth rates and alter microbial community structure with an ensuing spectrum of biogeochemical feedbacks. Strong phytoplankton responses to micronutrients supplied by volcanic ash have been reported recently. Here we: (i) synthesize findings from these recent studies; (ii) report the results of a new remote sensing study of ash fertilization; and (iii) calculate theoretical bounds of ash-fertilized carbon export. Our synthesis highlights that phytoplankton responses to ash do not always simply mimic that of iron amendment; the exact mechanisms for this are likely biogeochemically important but are not yet well understood. Inherent optical properties of ash-loaded seawater suggest rhyolitic ash biases routine satellite chlorophyll-a estimation upwards by more than an order of magnitude for waters with <0.1 mg chlorophyll-a m-3, and less than a factor of 2 for systems with >0.5 mg chlorophyll-a m-3. For this reason post-ash-deposition chlorophyll-a changes in oligotrophic waters detected via standard Case 1 (open ocean) algorithms should be interpreted with caution. Remote sensing analysis of historic events with a bias less than a factor of 2 provided limited stand-alone evidence for ash-fertilization. Confounding factors were poor coverage, incoherent ash dispersal, and ambiguity ascribing biomass changes to ash supply over other potential drivers. Using current estimates of iron release and carbon export efficiencies, uncertainty bounds of ash-fertilized carbon export for 3 events are presented. Patagonian iron supply to the Southern Ocean from volcanic eruptions is less than that of windblown dust on thousand year timescales but can dominate supply at shorter timescales. Reducing uncertainties in remote sensing of phytoplankton response and nutrient release from ash are avenues for enabling assessment of the oceanic response to large-scale transient nutrient enrichment. |
author2 |
Lohan, M |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Browning, T Stone, K Bouman, H Mather, TA Pyle, DM Martinez-Vicente, V |
author_facet |
Browning, T Stone, K Bouman, H Mather, TA Pyle, DM Martinez-Vicente, V |
author_sort |
Browning, T |
title |
Volcanic ash supply to the surface ocean – remote sensing of biological responses and their wider biogeochemical significance |
title_short |
Volcanic ash supply to the surface ocean – remote sensing of biological responses and their wider biogeochemical significance |
title_full |
Volcanic ash supply to the surface ocean – remote sensing of biological responses and their wider biogeochemical significance |
title_fullStr |
Volcanic ash supply to the surface ocean – remote sensing of biological responses and their wider biogeochemical significance |
title_full_unstemmed |
Volcanic ash supply to the surface ocean – remote sensing of biological responses and their wider biogeochemical significance |
title_sort |
volcanic ash supply to the surface ocean – remote sensing of biological responses and their wider biogeochemical significance |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/6336/ http://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/6336/1/fmars-02-00014.pdf https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2015.00014/full https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00014 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
http://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/6336/1/fmars-02-00014.pdf Browning, T; Stone, K; Bouman, H; Mather, TA; Pyle, DM; Martinez-Vicente, V. 2015 Volcanic ash supply to the surface ocean – remote sensing of biological responses and their wider biogeochemical significance. Frontiers in Marine Science, 2. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00014 <https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00014> |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2015.00014 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Marine Science |
container_volume |
2 |
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1766207622541737984 |