Gulf Stream rings may rival atmospheric iron supply to the North Atlantic subtropical gyre
Substantial amounts of nitrogen fixation occur in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, due to the activity of cyanobacteria with high iron requirements. Iron is delivered to this region by dust from the Sahara Desert. However, this dust deposition is typically localized and episodic. Therefore, othe...
Published in: | Nature Geoscience |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
DigitalCommons@URI
2018
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/gsofacpubs/523 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0162-0 https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/context/gsofacpubs/article/1503/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf |
id |
ftunivrhodeislan:oai:digitalcommons.uri.edu:gsofacpubs-1503 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivrhodeislan:oai:digitalcommons.uri.edu:gsofacpubs-1503 2024-09-15T18:22:24+00:00 Gulf Stream rings may rival atmospheric iron supply to the North Atlantic subtropical gyre Conway, Tim M. Palter, Jaime B. de Souza, Gregory F. 2018-01-01T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/gsofacpubs/523 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0162-0 https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/context/gsofacpubs/article/1503/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf unknown DigitalCommons@URI https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/gsofacpubs/523 doi:10.1038/s41561-018-0162-0 https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/context/gsofacpubs/article/1503/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications text 2018 ftunivrhodeislan https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0162-0 2024-08-21T00:09:33Z Substantial amounts of nitrogen fixation occur in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, due to the activity of cyanobacteria with high iron requirements. Iron is delivered to this region by dust from the Sahara Desert. However, this dust deposition is typically localized and episodic. Therefore, other sources of iron may also be important. Here, we report observations of dissolved iron concentrations in a Gulf Stream cold-core ring, which transported iron-rich water from near the continental slope into the subtropical gyre. We find that iron concentrations were elevated in the ring compared with subtropical waters, reflecting its source waters. Using iron data from these source waters and the identification of ring activity in satellite data, we estimate that cold-core rings provide a net flux of 0.3 ± 0.17 × 108 mol Fe yr−1 across the northwestern gyre edge, on the order of 15% of our median estimates of gyre-wide supply of iron by dust deposition. We suggest that iron supply from cold-core rings is an important source of iron to the northwestern gyre edge. We conclude that mesoscale ocean circulation features may play an important role in subtropical nutrient and carbon cycling. Text North Atlantic University of Rhode Island: DigitalCommons@URI Nature Geoscience 11 8 594 598 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Rhode Island: DigitalCommons@URI |
op_collection_id |
ftunivrhodeislan |
language |
unknown |
description |
Substantial amounts of nitrogen fixation occur in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, due to the activity of cyanobacteria with high iron requirements. Iron is delivered to this region by dust from the Sahara Desert. However, this dust deposition is typically localized and episodic. Therefore, other sources of iron may also be important. Here, we report observations of dissolved iron concentrations in a Gulf Stream cold-core ring, which transported iron-rich water from near the continental slope into the subtropical gyre. We find that iron concentrations were elevated in the ring compared with subtropical waters, reflecting its source waters. Using iron data from these source waters and the identification of ring activity in satellite data, we estimate that cold-core rings provide a net flux of 0.3 ± 0.17 × 108 mol Fe yr−1 across the northwestern gyre edge, on the order of 15% of our median estimates of gyre-wide supply of iron by dust deposition. We suggest that iron supply from cold-core rings is an important source of iron to the northwestern gyre edge. We conclude that mesoscale ocean circulation features may play an important role in subtropical nutrient and carbon cycling. |
format |
Text |
author |
Conway, Tim M. Palter, Jaime B. de Souza, Gregory F. |
spellingShingle |
Conway, Tim M. Palter, Jaime B. de Souza, Gregory F. Gulf Stream rings may rival atmospheric iron supply to the North Atlantic subtropical gyre |
author_facet |
Conway, Tim M. Palter, Jaime B. de Souza, Gregory F. |
author_sort |
Conway, Tim M. |
title |
Gulf Stream rings may rival atmospheric iron supply to the North Atlantic subtropical gyre |
title_short |
Gulf Stream rings may rival atmospheric iron supply to the North Atlantic subtropical gyre |
title_full |
Gulf Stream rings may rival atmospheric iron supply to the North Atlantic subtropical gyre |
title_fullStr |
Gulf Stream rings may rival atmospheric iron supply to the North Atlantic subtropical gyre |
title_full_unstemmed |
Gulf Stream rings may rival atmospheric iron supply to the North Atlantic subtropical gyre |
title_sort |
gulf stream rings may rival atmospheric iron supply to the north atlantic subtropical gyre |
publisher |
DigitalCommons@URI |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/gsofacpubs/523 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0162-0 https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/context/gsofacpubs/article/1503/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/gsofacpubs/523 doi:10.1038/s41561-018-0162-0 https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/context/gsofacpubs/article/1503/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0162-0 |
container_title |
Nature Geoscience |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
594 |
op_container_end_page |
598 |
_version_ |
1810462183417446400 |