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A ventilation‐based framework to explain the regeneration‐scavenging balance of iron in the ocean
Author(s) -
Tagliabue Alessandro,
Williams Richard G.,
Rogan Nicholas,
Achterberg Eric P.,
Boyd Philip W.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2014gl061066
Subject(s) - scavenging , biogeochemical cycle , regeneration (biology) , benthic zone , environmental science , geology , oceanography , environmental chemistry , chemistry , biology , biochemistry , antioxidant , microbiology and biotechnology
Our understanding of the processes driving the patterns of dissolved iron (DFe) in the ocean interior, either in observations or models, is complicated by the combined influences of subduction from the surface mixed layer, notable subsurface sources, regeneration, and scavenging loss. We describe a ventilation‐based framework to quantify these processes in a global ocean biogeochemical model including diagnostics along potential density surfaces. There is a prevailing control of subsurface DFe by the subduction of surface DFe as preformed DFe augmented by benthic sources of DFe from hydrothermal activity and sediments. Unlike phosphate, there is often a first‐order balance with a near cancelation between regeneration and scavenging with the remaining “net regeneration” controlled by the ventilation of surface excesses in Fe‐binding ligands. This DFe framework provides a more stringent test of how the total DFe distribution is mechanistically controlled within a model and may be subsequently used to interpret observed DFe distributions.