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AGU: Global Biogeochemical Cycles

 

Keywords

  • nitrate
  • nitrogen fixation
  • nitrogen isotope
  • subantarctic
  • tropical Pacific
  • denitrification

Index Terms

  • Biogeosciences: Nutrients and nutrient cycling (4845, 4850)
  • Oceanography: General: Descriptive and regional oceanography
  • Oceanography: General: Equatorial oceanography
  • Oceanography: Biological and Chemical: Anoxic environments (0404, 1803, 4834, 4902)

Abstract

GLOBAL BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES, VOL. 26, GB1003, 14 PP., 2012
doi:10.1029/2010GB003979

Subsurface tropical Pacific nitrogen isotopic composition of nitrate: Biogeochemical signals and their transport

Key Points
  • Equatorial Pacific nitrate N isotope is elevated relative to Atlantic
  • Elevation explained by partial assimilation and mixing with denitrified waters
  • These results help identify the nutrient pathway from deep sea to low latitudes

Patrick A. Rafter

Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA

Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Daniel M. Sigman

Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Christopher D. Charles

Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA

Jan Kaiser

School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

Gerald H. Haug

Geological Institute, Department of Earth Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, Switzerland

We report measurements of the nitrogen isotopic composition of nitrate (the δ15N of NO3) across the equatorial Pacific, for zonal transects from 165°E to 95°W and meridional transects across 95° and 110°W. The δ15N of NO3 is similar in the equatorial thermocline (≈100 m) and intermediate depth waters (≈150 to 600 m), averaging (7.1 ± 0.3)‰ and (7.1 ± 0.1)‰, respectively. These values are more than 2‰ higher than subthermocline waters of the Southern and Atlantic Oceans and are ≈1‰ higher than putative source waters in the high latitude South Pacific (Subantarctic Mode Water, SAMW). The combined constraints of nitrate concentration and δ15N of NO3 in the equatorial Pacific require (1) lateral exchange between the high-latitude source waters and the zones of denitrification in the eastern tropical Pacific and (2) the accumulation of remineralized nutrients at depth. The zonal uniformity of the subsurface equatorial Pacific δ15N of NO3 indicates rapid transport within the equatorial zone, which works to homogenize the δ15N of NO3 across the Pacific basin. Against this backdrop of high δ15N of NO3 in the tropical Pacific, we find a discrete off-equatorial core of lower δ15N of NO3 (5.5 ± 0.3)‰ concentrated at 5°S and 150 to 200 m along the 110° and 95°W transects and in apparent association with the Southern Subsurface Counter Current (SSCC). We propose that the remineralized products of nitrogen fixation, at the source of the SSCC in the western south Pacific, are the origin of the low δ15N of NO3 in these waters.

Received 29 October 2010; accepted 23 October 2011; published 10 January 2012.

Citation: Rafter, P. A., D. M. Sigman, C. D. Charles, J. Kaiser, and G. H. Haug (2012), Subsurface tropical Pacific nitrogen isotopic composition of nitrate: Biogeochemical signals and their transport, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 26, GB1003, doi:10.1029/2010GB003979.

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