Science Highlights

Some recent GEOTRACES science findings are reported below.

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

Can phytoplankton help us determine the bioavailability of iron in the world ocean?

Joint Science Highlight with US Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB). Iron (Fe) is a key element to life but in seawater it is present at extremely low concentrations. The scarcity […]

24.02.2020

The Colloidal Hourglass: North Atlantic Iron Distribution Controlled by Dynamic Colloidal Phase

K. Kunde and colleagues (2019, reference below) show that a highly dynamic colloidal iron phase in the upper ocean and at the seafloor boundary controls the distribution of dissolved iron […]

07.02.2020

A unique insight into the properties of iron aerosols in the Arctic Ocean

Gao and co-workers (2019, see reference below) collected size-segregated aerosols over 8 segments of the 2015 US GEOTRACES cruise (GN01) across the Arctic Ocean. They show that: aerosol iron (Fe) […]

31.01.2020

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