New beautiful results on marine particle speciation, a challenge for the GEOTRACES community…

Advanced Light Source x-ray spectromicroscopy (XANES) allows a fine description of the marine Fe pool chemical speciation and mineralogy. This work describes diverse arrays of iron particles (20- 700 nm), showing impressive variations in the oxidation state and composition of these iron particles between the coasts of South Africa and Antarctica. Moreover, different iron pools are occurring in different frontal zones. Because particle speciation is directly linked to the element solubilities, these differences may affect the production of bioavailable dissolved iron.

Iron_particle_speciation

Source : Science (click on the image to view it larger)

Reference:

B. P. von der Heyden, A. N. Roychoudhury, T. N. Mtshali1, T. Tyliszczak, S. C. B. Myneni. (2012). Chemically and Geographically Distinct Solid-Phase Iron Pools in the Southern Ocean: Science 338 (6111): 1199-1201, DOI: 10.1126/science.1227504

Latest highlights

Trace Element Dynamics in the Oligotrophic Northwest Pacific: Insights from the China GEOTRACES GP09 Cruise

This special highlight summarises published articles from the GP09 cruise in the Northwest Pacific Ocean…

Silicon isotopes reveal significant lithogenic input to dissolved silicon on the Kerguelen Plateau

Establishing sources, transformations and sinks of dissolved silicon, a major nutrient in the Southern Ocean, is of primary importance…

Conservative behavior of radiogenic neodymium isotopes in the South Pacific interior

Zhang and co-workers present full-depth measurements of εNd and Nd concentrations along the GP21 transect across the South Pacific basin…

Neodymium isotopes trace past Antarctic Intermediate Water circulation in the Arabian Sea

Shukla and co-authors reconstruct ventilation in the Northwestern Indian Ocean…

Rechercher