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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • iron
  • continental margin
  • HNLC

Index Terms

  • Oceanography: Biological and Chemical: Trace elements
  • Marine Geology and Geophysics: Continental shelf and slope processes
  • Oceanography: Biological and Chemical: Chemical tracers
  • Geochemistry: Marine geochemistry

Abstract

The continental margin is a key source of iron to the HNLC North Pacific Ocean

Phoebe J. Lam

Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA

Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA

James K. B. Bishop

Earth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA

Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA

Here we show that labile particulate iron and manganese concentrations in the upper 500 m of the Western Subarctic Pacific, an iron-limited High Nutrient Low Chlorophyll (HNLC) region, have prominent subsurface maxima between 100–200 m, reaching 3 nM and 600 pM, respectively. The subsurface concentration maxima in particulate Fe are characterized by a more reduced oxidation state, suggesting a source from primary volcagenic minerals such as from the Kuril/Kamchatka margin. The systematics of these profiles suggest a consistently strong lateral advection of labile Mn and Fe from redox-mobilized labile sources at the continental shelf supplemented by a more variable source of Fe from the upper continental slope. This subsurface supply of iron from the continental margin is shallow enough to be accessible to the surface through winter upwelling and vertical mixing, and is likely a key source of bioavailable Fe to the HNLC North Pacific.

Received 14 January 2008; accepted 4 March 2008; published 9 April 2008.

Citation: Lam, P. J., and J. K. B. Bishop (2008), The continental margin is a key source of iron to the HNLC North Pacific Ocean, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L07608, doi:10.1029/2008GL033294.

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