The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2014

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2014 (IDP2014) is the first publicly available data product of the international GEOTRACES programme, and contains data measured and quality controlled before the end of 2013. It consists of two parts: (1) a compilation of digital data for more than 200 trace elements and isotopes (TEls) as well as classical hydrographic parameters, and (2) the eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas providing a strongly inter-linked on-line atlas including more than 300 section plots and 90 animated 3D scenes. The IDP2014 covers the Atlantic, Arctic, and Indian oceans, exhibiting highest data density in the Atlantic. The TEI data in the IDP2014 are quality controlled by careful assessment of intercalibration results and multi-laboratory data comparisons at cross-over stations. The digital data are provided in several formats, including ASCII spreadsheet, Excel spreadsheet, netCDF, and Ocean Data View collection. In addition to the actual data values the IDP2014 also contains data quality flags and 1-sigma data error values where available. Quality flags and error values are useful for data filtering. Metadata about data originators, analytical methods and original publications related to the data are linked to the data in an easily accessible way. The eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas is the visual representation of the IDP2014 data providing section plots and a new kind of animated 3D scenes. The basin-wide 3D scenes allow for viewing of data from many cruises at the same time, thereby providing quick overviews of large-scale tracer distributions. In addition, the 3D scenes provide geographical and bathymetric context that is crucial for the interpretation and assessment of observed tracer plumes, as well as for making inferences about controlling processes

Manganese co-limitation of phytoplankton growth and major nutrient drawdown in the Southern Ocean

Residual macronutrients in the surface Southern Ocean result from restricted biological utilization, caused by low wintertime irradiance, cold temperatures, and insufficient micronutrients. Variability in utilization alters oceanic CO2 sequestration at glacial-interglacial timescales. The role for insufficient iron has been examined in detail, but manganese also has an essential function in photosynthesis and dissolved concentrations in the Southern Ocean can be strongly depleted. However, clear evidence for or against manganese limitation in this system is lacking. Here we present results from ten experiments distributed across Drake Passage. We found manganese (co-)limited phytoplankton growth and macronutrient consumption in central Drake Passage, whilst iron limitation was widespread nearer the South American and Antarctic continental shelves. Spatial patterns were reconciled with the different rates and timescales for removal of each element from seawater. Our results suggest an important role for manganese in modelling Southern Ocean productivity and understanding major nutrient drawdown in glacial periods

An update on dissolved methane distribution in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean

Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a significant role in recent increasing global temperatures. The oceans are a natural source of methane contributing to atmospheric methane concentrations, yet our understanding of the oceanic methane cycle is poorly constrained. Accumulating evidence indicates that a significant part of oceanic CH4 is produced in oxygenated surface waters as a by-product of phytoplanktonic activity. This study focused on the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean (26∘ N, 80′ W and 26∘ N, 18′ W) where the distribution of dissolved CH4 concentrations and associated air–sea fluxes during winter 2020 were investigated. Water samples from 64 stations were collected from the upper water column up to depths of 400 m. The upper oxic mixed layer was oversaturated in dissolved CH4 with concentrations ranging 3–7 nmol L−1, with the highest concentrations of 7–10 nmol L−1 found to the east of the transect, consistent with other subtropical regions of the world's oceans. The high anomalies of dissolved CH4 were found to be associated with phosphate-depleted waters and regions where the abundance of the ubiquitous picocyanobacteria Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus were elevated. Although other phytoplanktonic phyla cannot be excluded, this suggests that cyanobacteria contribute to the release of CH4 in this region. The calculation of air–sea fluxes further confirmed the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean as a source of CH4. This study provides evidence to corroborate the key role that picocyanobacteria play in helping to explain the oversaturation of CH4 found in surface mixed layer of the open ocean, otherwise known as the “ocean methane paradox”

Marine nutrient subsidies promote biogeochemical hotspots in undisturbed, highly humic estuaries

The land-ocean dissolved organic carbon (DOC) flux represents a significant term within the global carbon budget, with peatland-dominated regions representing the most intense sources of terrestrial DOC export. As the interface between freshwater and marine systems, estuaries have the potential to act as a filter of the land-ocean carbon flux, removing terrestrially derived DOC, which is present at low concentrations in the oceans, via a combination of physicochemical and biological processes. However, the fate of peat-derived DOC within estuaries remains poorly quantified, partly due to the complicating influences of heterogeneous soils, land-use, point sources, and upstream modification of organic matter. To minimize these modifying factors, we studied DOC and inorganic nutrients in four small, peat-dominated, minimally disturbed, and oligotrophic Falkland Island estuaries. Contrary to expectations, we found limited evidence of physicochemical estuarine DOC removal, and instead observed apparent "hot zones" of biogeochemical activity, where terrestrially-derived silicate mixed with inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus entering the estuaries from the nutrient-rich marine ecosystem. In two estuaries, this coincided with apparent in situ DOC production. We suggest that the observed phenomena of marine nutrient subsidy of estuarine productivity, and flexible utilization of multiple nutrients within the oligotrophic system, may once have been widespread in temperate estuaries. However, this function has been lost in many ecosystems due to catchment eutrophication by agricultural and urban development. We conclude that the estuaries of the Falkland Islands provide a valuable pre-disturbance analogue for natural biogeochemical functioning in temperate estuaries receiving high organic matter inputs

Microbial ecosystem responses to alkalinity enhancement in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre

In addition to reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, actively removing CO2 from the atmosphere is widely considered necessary to keep global warming well below 2°C. Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) describes a suite of such CO2 removal processes that all involve enhancing the buffering capacity of seawater. In theory, OAE both stores carbon and offsets ocean acidification. In practice, the response of the marine biogeochemical system to OAE must be demonstrably negligible, or at least manageable, before it can be deployed at scale. We tested the OAE response of two natural seawater mixed layer microbial communities in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, one at the Western gyre boundary, and one in the middle of the gyre. We conducted 4-day microcosm incubation experiments at sea, spiked with three increasing amounts of alkaline sodium salts and a 13C-bicarbonate tracer at constant pCO2. We then measured a suite of dissolved and particulate parameters to constrain the chemical and biological response to these additions. Microbial communities demonstrated occasionally measurable, but mostly negligible, responses to alkalinity enhancement. Neither site showed a significant increase in biologically produced CaCO3, even at extreme alkalinity loadings of +2,000 μmol kg−1. At the gyre boundary, alkalinity enhancement did not significantly impact net primary production rates. In contrast, net primary production in the central gyre decreased by ~30% in response to alkalinity enhancement. The central gyre incubations demonstrated a shift toward smaller particle size classes, suggesting that OAE may impact community composition and/or aggregation/disaggregation processes. In terms of chemical effects, we identify equilibration of seawater pCO2, inorganic CaCO3 precipitation, and immediate effects during mixing of alkaline solutions with seawater, as important considerations for developing experimental OAE methodologies, and for practical OAE deployment. These initial results underscore the importance of performing more studies of OAE in diverse marine environments, and the need to investigate the coupling between OAE, inorganic processes, and microbial community composition

Marine nutrient subsidies promote biogeochemical hotspots in undisturbed, highly humic estuaries

The land-ocean dissolved organic carbon (DOC) flux represents a significant term within the global carbon budget, with peatland-dominated regions representing the most intense sources of terrestrial DOC export. As the interface between freshwater and marine systems, estuaries have the potential to act as a filter of the land-ocean carbon flux, removing terrestrially derived DOC, which is present at low concentrations in the oceans, via a combination of physicochemical and biological processes. However, the fate of peat-derived DOC within estuaries remains poorly quantified, partly due to the complicating influences of heterogeneous soils, land-use, point sources, and upstream modification of organic matter. To minimize these modifying factors, we studied DOC and inorganic nutrients in four small, peat-dominated, minimally disturbed, and oligotrophic Falkland Island estuaries. Contrary to expectations, we found limited evidence of physicochemical estuarine DOC removal, and instead observed apparent “hot zones” of biogeochemical activity, where terrestrially-derived silicate mixed with inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus entering the estuaries from the nutrient-rich marine ecosystem. In two estuaries, this coincided with apparent in situ DOC production. We suggest that the observed phenomena of marine nutrient subsidy of estuarine productivity, and flexible utilization of multiple nutrients within the oligotrophic system, may once have been widespread in temperate estuaries. However, this function has been lost in many ecosystems due to catchment eutrophication by agricultural and urban development. We conclude that the estuaries of the Falkland Islands provide a valuable pre-disturbance analogue for natural biogeochemical functioning in temperate estuaries receiving high organic matter inputs

Sources, composition, and export of particulate organic matter across British estuaries

Estuaries receive and process a large amount of particulate organic carbon (POC) prior to its export into coastal waters. Studying the origin of this POC is key to understanding the fate of POC and the role of estuaries in the global carbon cycle. Here, we evaluated the concentrations of POC, as well as particulate organic nitrogen (PON), and used stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes to assess their sources across 13 contrasting British estuaries during five different sampling campaigns over 1 year. We found a high variability in POC and PON concentrations across the salinity gradient, reflecting inputs, and losses of organic material within the estuaries. Catchment land cover appeared to influence the contribution of POC to the total organic carbon flux from the estuary to coastal waters, with POC contributions >36% in estuaries draining catchments with a high percentage of urban/suburban land, and <11% in estuaries draining catchments with a high peatland cover. There was no seasonal pattern in the isotopic composition of POC and PON, suggesting similar sources for each estuary over time. Carbon isotopic ratios were depleted (−26.7 ± 0.42‰, average ± sd) at the lowest salinity waters, indicating mainly terrigenous POC (TPOC). Applying a two-source mixing model, we observed high variability in the contribution of TPOC at the highest salinity waters between estuaries, with a median value of 57%. Our results indicate a large transport of terrigenous organic carbon into coastal waters, where it may be buried, remineralized, or transported offshore

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2014

The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2014 (IDP2014) is the first publicly available data product of the international GEOTRACES programme, and contains data measured and quality controlled before the end of 2013. It consists of two parts: (1) a compilation of digital data for more than 200 trace elements and isotopes (TEIs) as well as classical hydrographic parameters, and (2) the eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas providing a strongly inter-linked on-line atlas including more than 300 section plots and 90 animated 3D scenes. The IDP2014 covers the Atlantic, Arctic, and Indian oceans, exhibiting highest data density in the Atlantic. The TEI data in the IDP2014 are quality controlled by careful assessment of intercalibration results and multi-laboratory data comparisons at cross-over stations. The digital data are provided in several formats, including ASCII spreadsheet, Excel spreadsheet, netCDF, and Ocean Data View collection. In addition to the actual data values the IDP2014 also contains data quality flags and 1-? data error values where available. Quality flags and error values are useful for data filtering. Metadata about data originators, analytical methods and original publications related to the data are linked to the data in an easily accessible way. The eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas is the visual representation of the IDP2014 data providing section plots and a new kind of animated 3D scenes. The basin-wide 3D scenes allow for viewing of data from many cruises at the same time, thereby providing quick overviews of large-scale tracer distributions. In addition, the 3D scenes provide geographical and bathymetric context that is crucial for the interpretation and assessment of observed tracer plumes, as well as for making inferences about controlling processes

GEOTRACES: Changing the Way We Explore Ocean Chemistry

GEOTRACES is an international study of the marine biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and their isotopes (TEIs), designed by marine geochemists to accelerate TEI research under a global program. Combining ocean sections, process studies, data synthesis, and modeling, GEOTRACES will identify and quantify the processes that supply TEIs at ocean boundaries as well as the physical and biological processes that redistribute TEIs within and between ocean basins. Constraining processes that remove TEIs from the ocean will enable complete mass budgets to be generated. Anticipated beneficiaries of GEOTRACES products include scientists studying the sustained health of marine ecosystems and their sensitivity to changes in micronutrient supply; paleoceanographers seeking to reconstruct past changes in the ocean environment, including the ocean's role in climate variability; and scientists and policymakers who seek a better understanding of the transport and fate of contaminants in the ocean. It is hoped that the experiences described here will provide helpful guidance to scientists in other disciplines who wish to advance their fields by organizing coordinated research programs