The Distribution of Dissolved Iron in the West Atlantic Ocean
Iron (Fe) is an essential trace element for marine life. Extremely low Fe concentrations limit primary production and nitrogen fixation in large parts of the oceans and consequently influence ocean ecosystem functioning. The importance of Fe for ocean ecosystems makes Fe one of the core chemical tra...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4076309 2023-05-15T17:13:54+02:00 The Distribution of Dissolved Iron in the West Atlantic Ocean Rijkenberg, Micha J. A. Middag, Rob Laan, Patrick Gerringa, Loes J. A. van Aken, Hendrik M. Schoemann, Véronique de Jong, Jeroen T. M. de Baar, Hein J. W. 2014-06-30 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4076309 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24978190 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101323 en eng Public Library of Science http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24978190 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101323 This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Research Article Text 2014 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101323 2014-07-06T01:25:50Z Iron (Fe) is an essential trace element for marine life. Extremely low Fe concentrations limit primary production and nitrogen fixation in large parts of the oceans and consequently influence ocean ecosystem functioning. The importance of Fe for ocean ecosystems makes Fe one of the core chemical trace elements in the international GEOTRACES program. Despite the recognized importance of Fe, our present knowledge of its supply and biogeochemical cycle has been limited by mostly fragmentary datasets. Here, we present highly accurate dissolved Fe (DFe) values measured at an unprecedented high intensity (1407 samples) along the longest full ocean depth transect (17500 kilometers) covering the entire western Atlantic Ocean. DFe measurements along this transect unveiled details about the supply and cycling of Fe. External sources of Fe identified included off-shelf and river supply, hydrothermal vents and aeolian dust. Nevertheless, vertical processes such as the recycling of Fe resulting from the remineralization of sinking organic matter and the removal of Fe by scavenging still dominated the distribution of DFe. In the northern West Atlantic Ocean, Fe recycling and lateral transport from the eastern tropical North Atlantic Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ) dominated the DFe-distribution. Finally, our measurements showed that the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), the major driver of the so-called ocean conveyor belt, contains excess DFe relative to phosphate after full biological utilization and is therefore an important source of Fe for biological production in the global ocean. Text NADW North Atlantic Deep Water North Atlantic PubMed Central (PMC) PLoS ONE 9 6 e101323 |
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Research Article |
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Research Article Rijkenberg, Micha J. A. Middag, Rob Laan, Patrick Gerringa, Loes J. A. van Aken, Hendrik M. Schoemann, Véronique de Jong, Jeroen T. M. de Baar, Hein J. W. The Distribution of Dissolved Iron in the West Atlantic Ocean |
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Research Article |
description |
Iron (Fe) is an essential trace element for marine life. Extremely low Fe concentrations limit primary production and nitrogen fixation in large parts of the oceans and consequently influence ocean ecosystem functioning. The importance of Fe for ocean ecosystems makes Fe one of the core chemical trace elements in the international GEOTRACES program. Despite the recognized importance of Fe, our present knowledge of its supply and biogeochemical cycle has been limited by mostly fragmentary datasets. Here, we present highly accurate dissolved Fe (DFe) values measured at an unprecedented high intensity (1407 samples) along the longest full ocean depth transect (17500 kilometers) covering the entire western Atlantic Ocean. DFe measurements along this transect unveiled details about the supply and cycling of Fe. External sources of Fe identified included off-shelf and river supply, hydrothermal vents and aeolian dust. Nevertheless, vertical processes such as the recycling of Fe resulting from the remineralization of sinking organic matter and the removal of Fe by scavenging still dominated the distribution of DFe. In the northern West Atlantic Ocean, Fe recycling and lateral transport from the eastern tropical North Atlantic Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ) dominated the DFe-distribution. Finally, our measurements showed that the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), the major driver of the so-called ocean conveyor belt, contains excess DFe relative to phosphate after full biological utilization and is therefore an important source of Fe for biological production in the global ocean. |
format |
Text |
author |
Rijkenberg, Micha J. A. Middag, Rob Laan, Patrick Gerringa, Loes J. A. van Aken, Hendrik M. Schoemann, Véronique de Jong, Jeroen T. M. de Baar, Hein J. W. |
author_facet |
Rijkenberg, Micha J. A. Middag, Rob Laan, Patrick Gerringa, Loes J. A. van Aken, Hendrik M. Schoemann, Véronique de Jong, Jeroen T. M. de Baar, Hein J. W. |
author_sort |
Rijkenberg, Micha J. A. |
title |
The Distribution of Dissolved Iron in the West Atlantic Ocean |
title_short |
The Distribution of Dissolved Iron in the West Atlantic Ocean |
title_full |
The Distribution of Dissolved Iron in the West Atlantic Ocean |
title_fullStr |
The Distribution of Dissolved Iron in the West Atlantic Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Distribution of Dissolved Iron in the West Atlantic Ocean |
title_sort |
distribution of dissolved iron in the west atlantic ocean |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4076309 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24978190 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101323 |
genre |
NADW North Atlantic Deep Water North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
NADW North Atlantic Deep Water North Atlantic |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24978190 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101323 |
op_rights |
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0101323 |
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PLoS ONE |
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9 |
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6 |
container_start_page |
e101323 |
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1766071094438002688 |