A circumpolar dust conveyor in the glacial Southern Ocean

Torben Struve (), Katharina Pahnke, Frank Lamy, Marc Wengler, Philipp Böning and Gisela Winckler
Additional contact information
Torben Struve: Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg
Katharina Pahnke: Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg
Frank Lamy: Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
Marc Wengler: Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
Philipp Böning: Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), University of Oldenburg
Gisela Winckler: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract The increased flux of soluble iron (Fe) to the Fe-deficient Southern Ocean by atmospheric dust is considered to have stimulated the net primary production and carbon export, thus promoting atmospheric CO2 drawdown during glacial periods. Yet, little is known about the sources and transport pathways of Southern Hemisphere dust during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Here we show that Central South America (~24‒32°S) contributed up to ~80% of the dust deposition in the South Pacific Subantarctic Zone via efficient circum-Antarctic dust transport during the LGM, whereas the Antarctic Zone was dominated by dust from Australia. This pattern is in contrast to the modern/Holocene pattern, when South Pacific dust fluxes are thought to be primarily supported by Australian sources. Our findings reveal that in the glacial Southern Ocean, Fe fertilization critically relies on the dynamic interaction of changes in dust-Fe sources in Central South America with the circumpolar westerly wind system.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18858-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-18858-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18858-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().