Science Highlights

Some recent GEOTRACES science findings are reported below.

Arctic mercury export flux with marine particles higher than anticipated

In the ocean, the residence time of mercury (Hg), is largely driven by two removal mechanisms: evasion to the atmosphere and downward export flux with settling particles. The later was […]

06.05.2020

Land inputs in the Arctic transported up to the North Pole

A new study found that freshwater runoff from rivers and continental shelf sediments are bringing significant quantities of carbon and trace elements into parts of the Arctic Ocean

05.05.2020

Loihi Seamount, hydrothermal Helium-3 and dissolved iron sources and their dispersion within the Pacific Ocean

As part of the GEOTRACES cruise GP15, Jenkins and co-workers (2020, see reference below) observed large water column anomalies in helium isotopes and trace metal concentrations above the Loihi Seamount […]

04.05.2020

Silicon isotopes reveal the different Arctic endmembers contributing to the deep water formed in the North Atlantic Ocean

Combining a multiparametric analysis, biogenic and dissolved silicon (Si) isotope data (30Si-bSiO2 and δ30Si-DSi, respectively) in the Arctic Ocean, Liguori and co-workers (2020, see reference below) could unravel the influence […]

20.04.2020

Particulate fluxes and circulation in a changing Arctic Ocean: tracer data and modeling

A complete review of published and new water column profiles of thorium-230 (230Th) and protactinium-231 (231Pa) concentrations and neodymium (Nd) isotopic compositions collected in the Amerasian Basin of the Arctic […]

27.03.2020

Who produces methylmercury in the global ocean?

The UNEP Minamata Convention was ratified in August 2017 and aims to protect human health from mercury exposure by reducing anthropogenic, inorganic, mercury emissions. The most toxic and biomagnifying mercury […]

18.03.2020

Oceanic Margins as sources of lithogenic particulate and dissolved iron in the North Pacific Ocean

Three GEOTRACES Japanese cruises on board the R/V Hakuho Maru allowed establishing basin-scale and full-depth sectional distributions of total dissolvable iron (tdFe), dissolved iron (dFe), and labile particulate iron (lpFe=tdFe […]

10.03.2020

Informative zinc isotopic fractionation in the Southern Ocean

Ellwood and co-workers (2020, see reference below) established the distribution of dissolved and particulate zinc (dZn and pZn respectively) and its isotopes in the Subantarctic Zone South of Tasmania. Concentration […]

09.03.2020

Is the global primary production at it’s maximum rate?

Lauderdale and co-authors (2020, see reference below) are seriously questioning the paradigm establishing that marine phytoplankton growth is limited by iron on a global scale. Iron availability to marine microbes […]

25.02.2020

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