Nutrient cycling in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean over the last 50,000 years

Type Article
Date 2005-07
Language English
Author(s) Crosta X1, Shemesh A2, Etourneau J1, Yam R2, Billy I1, Pichon Jj2
Affiliation(s) 1 : Univ Bordeaux 1, EPOC, DGO, CNRS,UMR 5805, F-33405 Talence, France.
2 : Weizmann Inst Sci, IL-76100 Rehovot, Israel.
Source Global Biogeochemical Cycles (0886-6236) (Amer Geophysical Union), 2005-07 , Vol. 19 , N. 3/GB3007 , P. 1-10
DOI 10.1029/2004GB002344
WOS© Times Cited 33
Keyword(s) diatoms, nutrient cycling, Southern Ocean
Abstract Most high-southern latitude records of carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios and elemental ratios are from the Antarctic and Polar Front zones, thus hindering a comprehensive view of nutrient cycling in the Southern Ocean. We present, for the first time, two records from the Subantarctic Zone and the southern Subtropical Zone of the Indian Ocean. These records provide a latitudinal transect covering the main oceanographic systems of the Southern Ocean. Carbon and nitrogen content of the diatom-bound organic matter increases during the last glacial in the Antarctic and Subantarctic zones but does not show a clear climate-related signal in the Subtropical Zone. Comparison of these records with sea-surface temperatures reconstructed at the core locations and record of dust deposition over Antarctica suggests that eolian iron input possibly switched diatom physiology toward higher carbon to silica and nitrogen to silica uptake and storage south of the Subantarctic Front due to the dependency of photosynthesis on iron concentration levels. Conversely, the northernmost core was too remote from any iron source over the last 50,000 years. Antarctic diatoms therefore have the sole potential to change the nutrient content of the waters escaping from the Southern Ocean, hence providing partial support to the silicic leakage hypothesis as a potential cause of lower glacial atmospheric CO2.
Full Text
File Pages Size Access
Publisher's official version 10 421 KB Open access
Top of the page