The Southern Ocean silica cycle

• Published in: Comptes Rendus Geoscience
• Main Author: Tréguer, Paul
• 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 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)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2014
• Subjects: ACL; Silicic acid; Silica cycle; Southern Ocean; Steady state; Silica production; Opal accumulation; geo; envir; Antarctic; Indian; Pacific; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crte.2014.07.003; https://hal.univ-brest.fr/hal-01108942

International audience The Southern Ocean is a major opal sink and plays a key role in the silica cycle of the world ocean. So far however, a complete cycle of silicon in the Southern Ocean has not been published. On one hand, Southern Ocean surface waters receive considerable amounts of silicic acid (dissolved silica, DSi) from the rest of the world ocean through the upwelling of the Circumpolar Deep Water, fed by contributions of deep waters of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. On the other hand, the Southern Ocean exports a considerable flux of the silicic acid that is not used by diatoms in surface waters through the northward pathways of the Sub-Antarctic Mode Water, of the Antarctic Intermediate Water, and of the Antarctic Bottom Water. Thus the Southern Ocean is a source of DSi for the rest of the world ocean. Here we show that the Southern Ocean is a net importer of DSi: because there is no significant external input of DSi, the flux of DSi imported through the Circumpolar Deep Water pathway compensates the sink flux of biogenic silica in sediments.