New insights on iron biogeochemistry published in Frontiers of Marine Science

The Marine and Lake Biogeochemistry team had published two papers which provide new insights on iron biogeochemistry . The first one assess for the first time the role of the fecal pellets of salps on iron recycling and export at depth. This has important implications for the future ability of the Southern Ocean mitigating our climate as most of the primary productivity is limited by iron and that the ever growing dominance of salps in this region involved more efficient export of iron at depth. The second paper is a Theory and Hypothesis one, which summarises present knowledge to critically assess the source(s), function(s), production pathways and loss mechanisms of known important iron-binding organic ligands in order to assess their distinctive characteristics and how they link with ligand distributions. This enables our study to provide a holistic viewpoint of the multi-faceted controls on ligands dynamics leading to a regional classification to understand why some ligands dominate in particular oceanic regions, depth strata, or exhibit seasonality or lateral gradients across the ocean. Such a framework will enhance our understanding of the changing composition of the bulk ligand pool across the global ocean and to what extent seasonality in the makeup of this pool.  It will also help to accelerate modelling efforts that are enhancing our understanding of this key control on trace metal biogeochemistry in the ocean.

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2016.00289/full

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2017.00019/full

News 2017