Wintertime pytoplankton bloom in the Subarctic Pacific supportedby continental margin iron

• Main Authors: Lam, Phoebe J., Bishop, James K.B., Henning, Cara C., Marcus,Matthew A., Waychunas, Glenn A., Fung, Inez
• Other Authors: USDOE Director. Office of Science. Biological andEnvironmental Research, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, MaterialsScience and Engineering Division, National Science FoundationATM-9987457
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 2004
• Subjects: Pacific Ocean; Particulates; 58; Hot Spots; General Circulation Models; Aleutian Islands; Phytoplankton; Depth; Spatial Distribution; Continental Margin; Hypothesis; Iron; Chemistry; Availability; Synchrotrons; Pacific; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc893683/

Heightened biological activity was observed in February 1996in the high-nutrient low-chlorophyll (HNLC) subarctic North PacificOcean, a region that is thought to beiron-limited. Here we provideevidence supporting the hypothesis that Ocean Station Papa (OSP) in thesubarctic Pacific received a lateral supply of particulate iron from thecontinental margin off the Aleutian Islands in the winter, coincidentwith the observed biological bloom. Synchrotron X-ray analysis was usedto describe the physical form, chemistry, and depth distributions of ironin size fractionated particulate matter samples. The analysis revealsthat discrete micron-sized iron-rich hotspots are ubiquitous in the upper200m at OSP, more than 900km from the closest coast. The specifics of thechemistry and depth profiles of the Fe hot spots trace them to thecontinental margins. We thus hypothesize that iron hotspots are a markerfor the delivery of iron from the continental margin. We confirm thedelivery of continental margin iron to the open ocean using an oceangeneral circulation model with an iron-like tracer source at thecontinental margin. We suggest that iron from the continental marginstimulated a wintertime phytoplankton bloom, partially relieving the HNLCcondition.