Dissolved iron measured along surface transects of the CARUSO-EISENEX experiment

Measurements of Fe(II) and H2O2 were carried out in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean during EisenEx, an iron enrichment experiment. Iron was added on three separate occasions, approximately every 8 days, as a ferrous sulfate (FeSO4) solution. Vertical profiles of Fe(II) showed maxima consistent with the plume of the iron infusion. While H2O2 profiles revealed a corresponding minima showing the effect of oxidation of Fe(II) by H2O2, observations showed detectable Fe(II) concentrations existed for up to 8 days after an iron infusion. H2O2 concentrations increased at the depth of the chlorophyll maximum when iron concentrations returned to pre-infusion concentrations (<80 pM) possibly due to biological production related to iron reductase activity. In this work, Fe(II) and dissolved iron were used as tracers themselves for subsequent iron infusions when no further SF6 was added. EisenEx was subject to periods of weak and strong mixing. Slow mixing after the second infusion allowed significant concentrations of Fe(II) and Fe to exist for several days. During this time, dissolved and total iron in the infusion plume behaved almost conservatively as it was trapped between a relict mixed layer and a new rain-induced mixed layer. Using dissolved iron, a value for the vertical diffusion coefficient Kz=6.7±0.7 cm**2/s was obtained for this 2-day period. During a subsequent surface survey of the iron-enriched patch, elevated levels of Fe(II) were found in surface waters presumably from Fe(II) dissolved in the rainwater that was falling at this time. Model results suggest that the reaction between uncomplexed Fe(III) and O2? was a significant source of Fe(II) during EisenEx and helped to maintain high levels of Fe(II) in the water column. This phenomenon may occur in iron enrichment experiments when two conditions are met: (i) When Fe is added to a system already saturated with regard to organic complexation and (ii) when mixing processes are slow, thereby reducing the dispersion of iron into under-saturated waters.

Compilation of growth rate data for marine pelagic organisms

The metabolic rate of organisms may either be viewed as a basic property from which other vital rates and many ecological patterns emerge and that follows a universal allometric mass scaling law; or it may be considered a property of the organism that emerges as a result of the organism's adaptation to the environment, with consequently less universal mass scaling properties. Data on body mass, maximum ingestion and clearance rates, respiration rates and maximum growth rates of animals living in the ocean epipelagic were compiled from the literature, mainly from original papers but also from previous compilations by other authors. Data were read from tables or digitized from graphs. Only measurements made on individuals of know size, or groups of individuals of similar and known size were included. We show that clearance and respiration rates have life-form-dependent allometries that have similar scaling but different elevations, such that the mass-specific rates converge on a rather narrow size-independent range. In contrast, ingestion and growth rates follow a near-universal taxa-independent ~3/4 mass scaling power law. We argue that the declining mass-specific clearance rates with size within taxa is related to the inherent decrease in feeding efficiency of any particular feeding mode. The transitions between feeding mode and simultaneous transitions in clearance and respiration rates may then represent adaptations to the food environment and be the result of the optimization of tradeoffs that allow sufficient feeding and growth rates to balance mortality.

Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) V1.4

A well-documented, publicly available, global data set of surface ocean carbon dioxide (CO2) parameters has been called for by international groups for nearly two decades. The Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT) project was initiated by the international marine carbon science community in 2007 with the aim of providing a comprehensive, publicly available, regularly updated, global data set of marine surface CO2, which had been subject to quality control (QC). Many additional CO2 data, not yet made public via the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), were retrieved from data originators, public websites and other data centres. All data were put in a uniform format following a strict protocol. Quality control was carried out according to clearly defined criteria. Regional specialists performed the quality control, using state-of-the-art web-based tools, specially developed for accomplishing this global team effort. SOCAT version 1.5 was made public in September 2011 and holds 6.3 million quality controlled surface CO2 data points from the global oceans and coastal seas, spanning four decades (1968-2007). Three types of data products are available: individual cruise files, a merged complete data set and gridded products. With the rapid expansion of marine CO2 data collection and the importance of quantifying net global oceanic CO2 uptake and its changes, sustained data synthesis and data access are priorities.

Profiles of iron concentration from GoFlow bottles during the CARUSO-EISENEX experiment

An in situ iron enrichment experiment was carried out in the Southern Ocean Polar Frontal Zone and fertilized a patch of water within an eddy of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (EisenEx, Nov. 2000). During the experiment, a physical speciation technique was used for iron analysis in order to understand the changes in iron distribution and size-fractionations, including soluble Fe (<200 kDa), colloidal Fe (200 kDa-0.2 µm) and labile particle Fe (>0.2 µm), throughout the development of the phytoplankton bloom. Prior to the first infusion of iron, dissolved (<0.2 µm) iron concentrations in the ambient surface seawater were extremely low (0.06±0.015 nM) with colloidal iron being a minor fraction. For the iron addition, an acidified FeSO4 solution was released three times over a 23-day period to the eddy. High levels of dissolved iron concentrations (2.0±1.1 nM) were measured in the surface water until 4 days after the first iron infusion. After every iron infusion, when high iron concentrations were observed before storm events, there was a significant correlation between colloidal and dissolved iron concentrations ([Colloidal Fe]=0.7627[Dissolved Fe]+0.0519, R2=0.9346). These results indicate that a roughly constant proportion of colloidal vs. dissolved iron was observed after iron infusion (~76%). Storm events caused a significant decrease in iron concentrations (<0.61 nM in dissolved iron) and changed the proportions of the three iron size-fractions (soluble, colloidal and labile particle). The changes in each iron size-fraction indicate that colloidal iron was eliminated from surface mixed layer more easily than particulate and soluble fractions. Therefore, particle and soluble iron efficiently remain in the mixed layer, probably due to the presence of suspended particles and naturally dissolved organic ligands. Our data suggest that iron removal through colloidal aggregation during phytoplankton bloom should be considered in the oceanic iron cycle.