Light limitation of phytoplankton biomass and macronutrient utilization in the Southern Ocean
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
In this article, a photo-physiological description of phytoplankton growth in a simple one-dimensional ecosystem model forced by observations or climatologies of mixing depth and surface irradiance is presented.Abstract:
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is unique in that it has continually high concentrations of major plant nutrients but low phytoplankton biomass. This enigmatic phenomenon is the focus of significant speculation that trace nutrients, including Fe, may limit phytoplankton crop size. Global climatologies indicate that the ACC is a region with low surface temperatures, weak density stratification, little summertime surface solar irradiance, and strong wind stress. These physical phenomena act to limit growth rates of the phytoplankton community. Using a photo-physiological description of phytoplankton growth in a simple one-dimensional ecosystem model forced by observations or climatologies of mixing depth and surface irradiance, the authors make an evaluation of the potential for massive, nutrient-exhausting, phytoplankton blooms forming in the ACC. The ACC has persistent mixed layers in excess of 50 m. Literature values and model optimization indicate that the minimal aggregate specific loss rate and typical physical conditions of stratification and surface irradiance, the model predicts that phytoplankton in the ACC would not utilize >10% of the available macronutrients. Without a mechanism for increasing the strength of stratification, the authors predict that massive Fe additions to the Southern Ocean would fail to significantly mitigate the atmospheric CO{sub 2} derived from fossilmore » fuel.« lessread more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
A mesoscale phytoplankton bloom in the polar Southern Ocean stimulated by iron fertilization
Philip W. Boyd,Andrew J. Watson,Cliff S. Law,Edward R. Abraham,Thomas W. Trull,Rob C. Murdoch,Dorothee C. E. Bakker,Andrew R. Bowie,Andrew R. Bowie,Ken O. Buesseler,Hoe Chang,Matthew A. Charette,Peter Croot,Ken Downing,Russell D. Frew,Mark Gall,Mark G. Hadfield,Julie A. Hall,Mike Harvey,Greg Jameson,Julie LaRoche,M.I. Liddicoat,R. D. Ling,Maria T. Maldonado,Maria T. Maldonado,R. Michael L. McKay,Scott D. Nodder,Stu Pickmere,Rick Pridmore,Steve Rintoul,Karl A. Safi,Philip Sutton,Robert F. Strzepek,Kim Tanneberger,Suzanne M. Turner,Anya M. Waite,John Zeldis +36 more
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that iron supply controls phytoplankton growth and community composition during summer in these polar Southern Ocean waters, but the fate of algal carbon remains unknown and depends on the interplay between the processes controlling export, remineralisation and timescales of water mass subduction.
A mesoscale phytoplankton bloom in the polar Southern Ocean stimulated by iron
W. Boyd,Andrew R. Bowie,Ken O. Buesseler,Hoe Chang,Matthew A. Charette,Peter Croot,Ken Downing,Russell D. Frew,Mark G. Hadfield,Mike Harvey,Greg Jameson,Julie LaRoche,M.I. Liddicoat,R. D. Ling,Maria T. Maldonado,R. Michael L. McKay,Scott D. Nodder,Stu Pickmere,Steve Rintoul,Karl A. Safi,Philip Sutton,Robert F. Strzepek,Kim Tanneberger,Suzanne M. Turner,Anya M. Waite,John Zeldis,Drake Circus +26 more
Journal ArticleDOI
Testing the iron hypothesis in ecosystems of the equatorial Pacific Ocean
John H. Martin,Kenneth H. Coale,Kenneth S. Johnson,Kenneth S. Johnson,Steve E. Fitzwater,R. M. Gordon,S. J. Tanner,Craig N. Hunter,Virginia A. Elrod,Jocelyn L. Nowicki,Teresa L. Coley,Richard T. Barber,Steven T. Lindley,Andrew J. Watson,K. A. Van Scoy,Cliff S. Law,M.I. Liddicoat,R. D. Ling,Timothy P. Stanton,J. Stockel,Clare E. Collins,A. Anderson,Robert R. Bidigare,Michael Ondrusek,Mikel Latasa,Frank J. Millero,Kitack Lee,W. Yao,J. Z. Zhang,Gernot E. Friederich,Carole M. Sakamoto,Francisco P. Chavez,Kurt R. Buck,Zbigniew Kolber,Richard M. Greene,Paul G. Falkowski,Sallie W. Chisholm,Frank E. Hoge,Robert N. Swift,James K. Yungel,Suzanne M. Turner,Philip D. Nightingale,Angela D. Hatton,Peter S. Liss,Neil Tindale +44 more
TL;DR: Findings indicate that iron limitation can control rates of phytoplankton productivity and biomass in the ocean.
Journal ArticleDOI
Mesoscale iron enrichment experiments 1993-2005 : Synthesis and future directions
Philip W. Boyd,Tim Jickells,Cliff S. Law,Stéphane Blain,Edward A. Boyle,Ken O. Buesseler,Kenneth H. Coale,John J. Cullen,H. J. W. de Baar,Michael J. Follows,Mike Harvey,Christiane Lancelot,Maurice Levasseur,N. P. J. Owens,Raymond T. Pollard,Richard B. Rivkin,Jorge L. Sarmiento,Véronique Schoemann,Victor Smetacek,Shigenobu Takeda,Atsushi Tsuda,Suzanne M. Turner,Andrew J. Watson +22 more
TL;DR: The findings of these 12 FeAXs reveal that iron supply exerts controls on the dynamics of plankton blooms, which in turn affect the biogeochemical cycles of carbon, nitrogen, silicon, and sulfur and ultimately influence the Earth climate system.
Journal ArticleDOI
Viruses and Nutrient Cycles in the Sea Viruses play critical roles in the structure and function of aquatic food webs
TL;DR: As the authors' demands upon the ocean increase, so does the need to understand the ocean as an ecosystem, and basic to the un-derstanding of any ecosystem is knowledge of its food web, through which energy and materials flow.
References
More filters
Climatological atlas of the world ocean
TL;DR: A project to objectively analyze historical ocean temperature, salinity, oxygen, and percent oxygen saturation data for the world ocean has recently been completed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey.
Book
Climatological Atlas of the World Ocean
TL;DR: A project to objectively analyze historical ocean temperature, salinity, oxygen, and percent oxygen saturation data for the world ocean has recently been completed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey.
Related Papers (5)
A mesoscale phytoplankton bloom in the polar Southern Ocean stimulated by iron fertilization
Philip W. Boyd,Andrew J. Watson,Cliff S. Law,Edward R. Abraham,Thomas W. Trull,Rob C. Murdoch,Dorothee C. E. Bakker,Andrew R. Bowie,Andrew R. Bowie,Ken O. Buesseler,Hoe Chang,Matthew A. Charette,Peter Croot,Ken Downing,Russell D. Frew,Mark Gall,Mark G. Hadfield,Julie A. Hall,Mike Harvey,Greg Jameson,Julie LaRoche,M.I. Liddicoat,R. D. Ling,Maria T. Maldonado,Maria T. Maldonado,R. Michael L. McKay,Scott D. Nodder,Stu Pickmere,Rick Pridmore,Steve Rintoul,Karl A. Safi,Philip Sutton,Robert F. Strzepek,Kim Tanneberger,Suzanne M. Turner,Anya M. Waite,John Zeldis +36 more
A massive phytoplankton bloom induced by an ecosystem-scale iron fertilization experiment in the equatorial Pacific Ocean
Kenneth H. Coale,Kenneth S. Johnson,Kenneth S. Johnson,Steve E. Fitzwater,R. Michael Gordon,S. J. Tanner,Francisco P. Chavez,Laurie Ferioli,Laurie Ferioli,Carole M. Sakamoto,Paul Rogers,Frank J. Millero,Paul A. Steinberg,Phil Nightingale,Phil Nightingale,David Neil Cooper,David Neil Cooper,William P. Cochlan,Michael R. Landry,John Constantinou,Gretchen Rollwagen,Armando Trasviña,Raphael M. Kudela,Raphael M. Kudela +23 more