A special issue of Oceanography celebrates the 20 years of GEOTRACES!

A special issue of Oceanography reviews the transformational findings of the international GEOTRACES programme in chemical oceanography, 20 years after drafting of the GEOTRACES Science Plan in 2004 (GEOTRACES Planning Group, 2006). A group of researchers led by Tim Conway propose to look back at the achievements of GEOTRACES during the last two decades and to highlight some of the advances in our understanding of the processes that determine the oceanic distributions of trace elements and isotopes (TEIs).

Twenty Years of GEOTRACES: An International Study of the Marine Biogeochemical Cycles of Trace Elements and Isotopes

Oceanography, Volume 37 | Number 2 | June 2024

Editors:  Tim M. Conway, Jessica N. Fitzsimmons, Rob Middag, Taryn L. Noble, and Hélène Planquette.

On the Cover: Deployment of the “trace metal clean” rosette at 78°N from USCGC Healy as part of the 2015 US GEOTRACES GN01 cruise to the Arctic Ocean. Water from this cast yielded data for key biogeochemical parameters such as iron, aluminum, radium, metal isotopes, and major nutrients. Photo credit: Katlin Bowman Adamczyk, US Geological Survey

The issue contains 19 papers, covering many topics from the importance of the intercalibration and data quality to build a world atlas of trace element and isotope data gathering the effort of ca 35 countries, to the intensive outreach activity promoted, among others, by the GEOTRACES International Project Office. It highlights the improvements on i) the knowledge of dissolved iron -and other bioactive trace metals- sources, sink and transformation, ii) the importance of the multi-tracer approach, as well as iii) the complexity of marine particles that are a complex imbrication of biogenic and lithogenic materials.  Panels of models and looking to the future with the mention of emerging initiatives as BioGeoScapes are closing this rich and informative issue.

Read the papers by clicking on the links below:

FROM THE GUEST EDITORS • Introduction to the Special Issue
By Tim M. Conway, Jessica N. Fitzsimmons, Rob Middag , Taryn L. Noble, and Hélène Planquette

PERSPECTIVE • GEOTRACES Reflections
By Robert F. Anderson

PERSPECTIVE • A Young Scientist’s Perspective on GEOTRACES
By Dylan J. Halbeisen

PERSPECTIVE • The Value of Going To Sea on Big Ships and the Advantage of Multiple Tracers for GEOTRACES Style Programs
By Catherine Jeandel

PERSPECTIVE • Intercalibration: A Cornerstone of the Success of the GEOTRACES Program
By Ana Aguilar-Islas, Hélène Planquette, Maeve C. Lohan, Walter Geibert, and Gregory Cutter

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Products: Rich Resources for Research, Education, and Outreach
By Reiner Schlitzer and Sebastian Mieruch-Schnülle

SPOTLIGHT • Three-Minute Videos to Learn About Marine Geochemistry
By Elena Masferrer Dodas, Catherine Jeandel, and Adrian Artis

PERSPECTIVE • GEOTRACES: Ironing Out the Details of the Oceanic Iron Sources?
By Tim M. Conway, Rob Middag, and Reiner Schlitzer

The Southern Ocean Hub for Nutrients, Micronutrients, and Their Isotopes in the Global Ocean
By Gregory F. de Souza and Adele K. Morrison

Shelf-Basin Connectivity Drives Dissolved Fe and Mn Distributions in the Western Arctic Ocean: A Synoptic View into Polar Trace Metal Cycling
By Laramie Jensen and Manuel Colombo

On the Variability of Equatorial Pacific Nitrate and Iron Utilization
By Patrick A. Rafter

Advances in Understanding the Marine Nitrogen Cycle in the GEOTRACES Era
By Karen L. Casciotti, Tanya A. Marshall, Sarah E. Fawcett, and Angela N. Knapp

The “Net” Impact of Hydrothermal Venting on Oceanic Elemental Inventories: Contributions to Plume Geochemistry from the International GEOTRACES Program
By Jessica N. Fitzsimmons and Janelle M. Steffen

PERSPECTIVE • GEOTRACES: Fifteen Years of Progress in Marine Aerosol Research
By Clifton S. Buck, Susanne Fietz, Douglas S. Hamilton, Tung-Yuan Ho, Morgane M.G. Perron, and Rachel U. Shelley

An Ocean of Particles Characterization of Particulate Trace Elements by the GEOTRACES Program
By Benjamin S. Twining

Novel Insights into Ocean Trace Element Cycling from Biogeochemical Models
By Alessandro Tagliabue and Thomas Weber

New Insights into the Organic Complexation of Bioactive Trace Metals in the Global Ocean from the GEOTRACES Era
By Hannah Whitby, Jiwoon Park, Yeala Shaked, Rene M. Boiteau, Kristen N. Buck, and Randelle M. Bundy

PERSPECTIVE • Timekeepers for Trace Elements in the Global Ocean: The Thorium Stopwatches
By Christopher T. Hayes

PERSPECTIVE • The Dawn of the BioGeoSCAPES Program: Ocean Metabolism and Nutrient Cycles on a Changing Planet
By Mak A. Saito, Harriet Alexander, Heather M. Benway, Philip W. Boyd, Martha Gledhill, Elizabeth B. Kujawinski, Naomi M. Levine, Mai Maheigan, Adrian Marchetti, Ingrid Obernosterer, Alyson E. Santoro, Dalin Shi, Koji Suzuki, Alessandro Tagliabue, Benjamin S. Twining, and Maria T. Maldonado