Lithogenic particle transport trajectories on the Northwest Atlantic Margin

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2021. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 126(1), (2021): e2020JC016802, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JC016802.The neodymium isotopic composition of the detrital (lithogenic) fraction (εNd‐detrital) of surface sediments and sinking particles was examined to constrain transport trajectories associated with hemipelagic sedimentation on the northwest Atlantic margin. The provenance of resuspended sediments and modes of lateral transport in the water column were of particular interest given the energetic hydrodynamic regime that sustains bottom and intermediate nepheloid layers over the margin. A large across‐margin gradient of ∼5 εNd units was observed for surface sediments, implying strong contrasts in sediment provenance, with εNd‐detrital values on the lower slope similar to those of “upstream regions” (Scotian margin) under the influence of the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC). Sinking particles collected at three depths at a site (total water depth, ∼3,000 m) on the New England margin within the core of the DWBC exhibited a similarly large range in εNd‐detrital values. The εNd‐detrital values of particles intercepted at intermediate water depths (1,000 and 2,000 m) were similar to each other but significantly higher than those at 3,000 m (∼50 m above the seafloor). These observations suggest that lithogenic material accumulating in the upper two traps was primarily advected in intermediate nepheloid layers emanating from the adjacent shelf, while that at 3,000 m is strongly influenced by sediment resuspension and along‐margin, southward lateral transport within the bottom nepheloid layer via entrainment in the DWBC. Our results highlight the importance of both along‐ and across‐margin sediment transport as vectors for lithogenic material and associated organic carbon transport.This research was funded by the NSF Ocean Sciences Chemical Oceanography program (OCE‐0425677; OCE‐0851350). JH was partly supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean Government (2020R1A2C1008378).2021-06-0

HIV infection of non-dividing cells: a divisive problem

Understanding how lentiviruses can infect terminally differentiated, non-dividing cells has proven a very complex and controversial problem. It is, however, a problem worth investigating, for it is central to HIV-1 transmission and AIDS pathogenesis. Here I shall attempt to summarise what is our current understanding for HIV-1 infection of non-dividing cells. In some cases I shall also attempt to make sense of controversies in the field and advance one or two modest proposals

Preservation of iron(II) by carbon-rich matrices in a hydrothermal plume

Hydrothermal venting associated with mid-ocean ridge volcanism is globally widespread. This venting is responsible for a dissolved iron flux to the ocean that is approximately equal to that associated with continental riverine runoff. For hydrothermal fluxes, it has long been assumed that most of the iron entering the oceans is precipitated in inorganic forms. However, the possibility of globally significant fluxes of iron escaping these mass precipitation events and entering open-ocean cycles is now being debated, and two recent studies suggest that dissolved organic ligands might influence the fate of hydrothermally vented metals. Here we present spectromicroscopic measurements of iron and carbon in hydrothermal plume particles at the East Pacific Rise mid-ocean ridge. We show that organic carbon-rich matrices, containing evenly dispersed iron(II)-rich materials, are pervasive in hydrothermal plume particles. The absence of discrete iron(II) particles suggests that the carbon and iron associate through sorption or complexation. We suggest that these carbon matrices stabilize iron(II) released from hydrothermal vents in the region, preventing its oxidation and/or precipitation as insoluble minerals. Our findings have implications for deep-sea biogeochemical cycling of iron, a widely recognized limiting nutrient in the oceans

Particle fluxes at sediment traps AU9701, south of Australia

Sediment trap moorings were deployed from September 21, 1997 through February 21, 1998 at three locations south of Australia along 140°E: at -47°S in the central Subantarctic Zone (SAZ) with traps at 1060, 2050, and 3850 m depth, at -51°S in the Subantarctic Front with one trap at 3080 m, and at -54°S in the Polar Frontal Zone (PFZ) with traps at 830 and 1580 m. Particle fluxes were high at all the sites (18-32 g/m**2/yr total mass and 0.5-1.4 g organic carbon/m**2/yr at -1000 m, assuming minimal flux outside the sampled summer period). These values are similar to other Southern Ocean results and to the median estimated for the global ocean by Lampitt and Antia [1997], and emphasize that the Southern Ocean exports considerable carbon to the deep sea despite its 'high-nutrient, low chlorophyll' characteristics. The SAZ site was dominated by carbonate (>50% of total mass) and the PFZ site by biogenic silica (>50% of total mass). Both sites exhibited high export in spring and late summer, with an intervening low flux period in December. For the 153 day collection period, particulate organic carbon export was somewhat higher in all the traps in the SAZ (range 0.57-0.84 gC/m**2) than in the PFZ (range 0.31-0.53), with an intermediate value observed at the SAF (0.60). The fraction of surface organic carbon export (estimated from seasonal nutrient depletion, Lourey and Trull [2001]) reaching 1000 m was indistinguishable in the SAZ and PFZ, despite different algal communities

Geochemical particle fluxes in the Southern Indian Ocean seasonal ice zone: Prydz Bay region, East Antarctica

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