Southern Ocean iron enrichment experiment: carbon cycling in high- and low-Si waters

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Coale, KH, Johnson, KS, Chavez, FP, Buesseler, KO, Barber, RT, Brzezinski, MA, Cochlan, WP, Millero, FJ, Falkowski, PG, Bauer, JE, Wanninkhof, RH, Kudela, RM, Altabet, MA, Hales, BE, Takahashi, T, Landry, MR, Bidigare, RR, Wang, X, Chase, Z, Strutton, PG, Friederich, GE, Gorbunov, MY, Lance, VP, Hilting, AK, Hiscock, MR, Demarest, M, Hiscock, WT, Sullivan, KF, Tanner, SJ, Gordon, RM, Hunter, CN, Elrod, VA, Fitzwater, SE, Jones, JL, Tozzi, S, Koblizek, M, Roberts, AE, Herndon, J, Brewster, J, Ladizinsky, N, Smith, G, Cooper, D, Timothy, D, Brown, SL, Selph, KE, Sheridan, CC, Twining, BS, Johnson, ZI
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Amer Assoc Advancement Science 2004
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Oceanography; Chemical Oceanography; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1089778; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15087542; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/101434

The availability of iron is known to exert a controlling influence on biological productivityin surface waters over large areas of the ocean and may have been an importantfactor in the variation of the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide over glacialcycles. The effect of iron in the Southern Ocean is particularly important because ofits large area and abundant nitrate, yet iron-enhanced growth of phytoplankton maybe differentially expressed between waters with high silicic acid in the south and lowsilicic acid in the north, where diatom growth may be limited by both silicic acid andiron.Twomesoscaleexperiments, designed to investigate the effects of ironenrichmentin regions with high and low concentrations of silicic acid, were performed in theSouthern Ocean. These experiments demonstrate irons pivotal role in controllingcarbon uptake and regulating atmospheric partial pressure of carbon dioxide.