The continental margin is a keysource of iron to the HNLC North Pacific Ocean.
Lam, P. J. and J. K. B. Bishop
Geophys. Res. Lett. 35
L07608, doi:10.1029/2008GL033294.
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The continental margin is a keysource of iron to the HNLC North Pacific Ocean.Lam, P. J. and J. K. B. Bishop
Geophys. Res. Lett. 35
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Abstract.
Here we show that labile particulate iron and manganese
concentrations in the upper 500 m of the Western Subarctic
Pacific, an iron-limited High Nutrient Low Chlorophyll
(HNLC) region, have prominent subsurface maxima between
100 200 m, reaching 3 nM and 600 pM, respectively. The
subsurface concentration maxima in particulate Fe are
characterized by a more reduced oxidation state, suggesting
a source from primary volcagenic minerals such as from the
Kuril/Kamchatka margin. The systematics of these profiles
suggest a consistently strong lateral advection of labile Mn
and Fe from redox-mobilized labile sources at the continental
shelf supplemented by a more variable source of Fe from the
upper continental slope. This subsurface supply of iron from
the continental margin is shallow enough to be accessible to
the surface through winter upwelling and vertical mixing, and
is likely a key source of bioavailable Fe to the HNLC North
Pacific.
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