The 3He flux gauge in the Sargasso Sea : a determination of physical nutrient fluxes to the euphotic zone at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Site
© The Author(s), 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Biogeosciences 12 (2015): 5199-5210, doi:10.5194/bg-12-5199-2015. Significant rates of primary production occur in the oligotrophic ocean, without a...
Published in: | Biogeosciences |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union
2015
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1912/7553 |
id |
ftwhoas:oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/7553 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftwhoas:oai:darchive.mblwhoilibrary.org:1912/7553 2023-05-15T17:37:04+02:00 The 3He flux gauge in the Sargasso Sea : a determination of physical nutrient fluxes to the euphotic zone at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Site The He-3 flux gauge in the Sargasso Sea : a determination of physical nutrient fluxes to the euphotic zone at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Site Stanley, Rachel H. R. Jenkins, William J. Doney, Scott C. Lott, Dempsey E. 2015-09-04 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/1912/7553 en_US eng Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-5199-2015 Biogeosciences 12 (2015): 5199-5210 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/7553 doi:10.5194/bg-12-5199-2015 Attribution 3.0 Unported http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ CC-BY Biogeosciences 12 (2015): 5199-5210 doi:10.5194/bg-12-5199-2015 Article 2015 ftwhoas https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-5199-2015 2022-05-28T22:59:25Z © The Author(s), 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Biogeosciences 12 (2015): 5199-5210, doi:10.5194/bg-12-5199-2015. Significant rates of primary production occur in the oligotrophic ocean, without any measurable nutrients present in the mixed layer, fueling a scientific paradox that has lasted for decades. Here, we provide a new determination of the annual mean physical supply of nitrate to the euphotic zone in the western subtropical North Atlantic. We combine a 3-year time series of measurements of tritiugenic 3He from 2003 to 2006 in the surface ocean at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site with a sophisticated noble gas calibrated air–sea gas exchange model to constrain the 3He flux across the sea–air interface, which must closely mirror the upward 3He flux into the euphotic zone. The product of the 3He flux and the observed subsurface nitrate–3He relationship provides an estimate of the minimum rate of new production in the BATS region. We also apply the gas model to an earlier time series of 3He measurements at BATS in order to recalculate new production fluxes for the 1985 to 1988 time period. The observations, despite an almost 3-fold difference in the nitrate–3He relationship, yield a roughly consistent estimate of nitrate flux. In particular, the nitrate flux from 2003 to 2006 is estimated to be 0.65 ± 0.14 mol m−2 yr−1, which is ~40 % smaller than the calculated flux for the period from 1985 to 1988. The difference in nitrate flux between the time periods may be signifying a real difference in new production resulting from changes in subtropical mode water formation. Overall, the nitrate flux is larger than most estimates of export fluxes or net community production fluxes made locally for the BATS site, which is likely a reflection of the larger spatial scale covered by the 3He technique and potentially also by the decoupling of 3He and nitrate during the obduction of water masses ... Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) Biogeosciences 12 17 5199 5210 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Woods Hole Scientific Community: WHOAS (Woods Hole Open Access Server) |
op_collection_id |
ftwhoas |
language |
English |
description |
© The Author(s), 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Biogeosciences 12 (2015): 5199-5210, doi:10.5194/bg-12-5199-2015. Significant rates of primary production occur in the oligotrophic ocean, without any measurable nutrients present in the mixed layer, fueling a scientific paradox that has lasted for decades. Here, we provide a new determination of the annual mean physical supply of nitrate to the euphotic zone in the western subtropical North Atlantic. We combine a 3-year time series of measurements of tritiugenic 3He from 2003 to 2006 in the surface ocean at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) site with a sophisticated noble gas calibrated air–sea gas exchange model to constrain the 3He flux across the sea–air interface, which must closely mirror the upward 3He flux into the euphotic zone. The product of the 3He flux and the observed subsurface nitrate–3He relationship provides an estimate of the minimum rate of new production in the BATS region. We also apply the gas model to an earlier time series of 3He measurements at BATS in order to recalculate new production fluxes for the 1985 to 1988 time period. The observations, despite an almost 3-fold difference in the nitrate–3He relationship, yield a roughly consistent estimate of nitrate flux. In particular, the nitrate flux from 2003 to 2006 is estimated to be 0.65 ± 0.14 mol m−2 yr−1, which is ~40 % smaller than the calculated flux for the period from 1985 to 1988. The difference in nitrate flux between the time periods may be signifying a real difference in new production resulting from changes in subtropical mode water formation. Overall, the nitrate flux is larger than most estimates of export fluxes or net community production fluxes made locally for the BATS site, which is likely a reflection of the larger spatial scale covered by the 3He technique and potentially also by the decoupling of 3He and nitrate during the obduction of water masses ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Stanley, Rachel H. R. Jenkins, William J. Doney, Scott C. Lott, Dempsey E. |
spellingShingle |
Stanley, Rachel H. R. Jenkins, William J. Doney, Scott C. Lott, Dempsey E. The 3He flux gauge in the Sargasso Sea : a determination of physical nutrient fluxes to the euphotic zone at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Site |
author_facet |
Stanley, Rachel H. R. Jenkins, William J. Doney, Scott C. Lott, Dempsey E. |
author_sort |
Stanley, Rachel H. R. |
title |
The 3He flux gauge in the Sargasso Sea : a determination of physical nutrient fluxes to the euphotic zone at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Site |
title_short |
The 3He flux gauge in the Sargasso Sea : a determination of physical nutrient fluxes to the euphotic zone at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Site |
title_full |
The 3He flux gauge in the Sargasso Sea : a determination of physical nutrient fluxes to the euphotic zone at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Site |
title_fullStr |
The 3He flux gauge in the Sargasso Sea : a determination of physical nutrient fluxes to the euphotic zone at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Site |
title_full_unstemmed |
The 3He flux gauge in the Sargasso Sea : a determination of physical nutrient fluxes to the euphotic zone at the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Site |
title_sort |
3he flux gauge in the sargasso sea : a determination of physical nutrient fluxes to the euphotic zone at the bermuda atlantic time-series site |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/1912/7553 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Biogeosciences 12 (2015): 5199-5210 doi:10.5194/bg-12-5199-2015 |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-5199-2015 Biogeosciences 12 (2015): 5199-5210 https://hdl.handle.net/1912/7553 doi:10.5194/bg-12-5199-2015 |
op_rights |
Attribution 3.0 Unported http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-5199-2015 |
container_title |
Biogeosciences |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
17 |
container_start_page |
5199 |
op_container_end_page |
5210 |
_version_ |
1766136794384957440 |