Authigenic mineral phases as a driver of the upper-ocean iron cycle

Alessandro Tagliabue (), Kristen N. Buck, Laura E. Sofen, Benjamin S. Twining, Olivier Aumont, Philip W. Boyd, Salvatore Caprara, William B. Homoky, Rod Johnson, Daniela König, Daniel C. Ohnemus, Bettina Sohst and Peter Sedwick
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Alessandro Tagliabue: University of Liverpool
Kristen N. Buck: University of South Florida
Laura E. Sofen: Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
Benjamin S. Twining: Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences
Olivier Aumont: LOCEAN, IRD-CNRS-Sorbonne Université-MNHN, IPSL
Philip W. Boyd: University of Tasmania
Salvatore Caprara: University of South Florida
William B. Homoky: University of Leeds
Rod Johnson: Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences
Daniela König: University of Liverpool
Daniel C. Ohnemus: University of Georgia, Department of Marine Sciences
Bettina Sohst: Old Dominion University
Peter Sedwick: Old Dominion University

Nature, 2023, vol. 620, issue 7972, 104-109

Abstract: Abstract Iron is important in regulating the ocean carbon cycle1. Although several dissolved and particulate species participate in oceanic iron cycling, current understanding emphasizes the importance of complexation by organic ligands in stabilizing oceanic dissolved iron concentrations2–6. However, it is difficult to reconcile this view of ligands as a primary control on dissolved iron cycling with the observed size partitioning of dissolved iron species, inefficient dissolved iron regeneration at depth or the potential importance of authigenic iron phases in particulate iron observational datasets7–12. Here we present a new dissolved iron, ligand and particulate iron seasonal dataset from the Bermuda Atlantic Time-series Study (BATS) region. We find that upper-ocean dissolved iron dynamics were decoupled from those of ligands, which necessitates a process by which dissolved iron escapes ligand stabilization to generate a reservoir of authigenic iron particles that settle to depth. When this ‘colloidal shunt’ mechanism was implemented in a global-scale biogeochemical model, it reproduced both seasonal iron-cycle dynamics observations and independent global datasets when previous models failed13–15. Overall, we argue that the turnover of authigenic particulate iron phases must be considered alongside biological activity and ligands in controlling ocean-dissolved iron distributions and the coupling between dissolved and particulate iron pools.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06210-5

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