Several GEOTRACES SSC members and researchers awarded the ASLO’s 2019 Martin Award

The Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography has awarded the 2019 John H. Martin Award to the paper “A mesoscale phytoplankton bloom in the polar Southern Ocean stimulated by iron fertilization”.

The nomination reads:

In their 2000 paper, Phillip Boyd and co-authors, test how phytoplankton respond to iron fertilization. In the 1980s, John Martin himself hypothesized that iron enrichment in high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll regions would stimulate phytoplankton growth, and furthermore could hold the key to mitigating global warming via carbon sequestration. While prior field studies had documented increases in phytoplankton biomass following iron enrichment in the tropics, the second part of Martin’s hypothesis – that the increased phytoplankton biomass would boost carbon sequestration – remained untested until Boyd et al. The 13-day long mesoscale study found that iron enrichment led to an increase in phytoplankton biomass and rate of photosynthesis in surface waters; however, this increased carbon fixation was not necessarily followed by enhanced carbon fluxes and sequestration as predicted by Martin’s “iron hypothesis”.

CONGRATULATIONS to current and past GEOTRACES Scientific Steering Committee or subcommittees members Phillip Boyd (lead author), Andrew R. Bowie, Maria T. Maldonado, Peter Croot (co-authors), as well as all other co-authors, Andrew J. Watson, Cliff S. Law, Edward R. Abraham, Thomas Trull, Rob Murdoch, Dorothee C. E. Bakker, K. O. Buesseler, Hoe Chang, Matthew Charette, Ken Downing, Russell Frew, Mark Gall, Mark Hadfield, Julie Hall, Mike Harvey, Greg Jameson, Julie LaRoche, Malcolm Liddicoat, Roger Ling, R. Michael McKay, Scott Nodder, Stu Pickmere, Rick Pridmore, Steve Rintoul, Karl Safi, Philip Sutton, Robert Strzepek, Kim Tanneberger, Suzanne Turner, Anya Waite, and John Zeldis!

The John Martin Award recognizes a paper in aquatic sciences that is judged to have had a high impact on subsequent research in the field. More information about this award is available here: https://aslo.org/page/2019-martin-award

Citation:
Boyd, P. W et al. (2000). A mesoscale phytoplankton bloom in the polar Southern Ocean stimulated by iron fertilization. Nature, 407(6805), 695–702. http://doi.org/10.1038/35037500