ORCID

Abstract

Scarcity of iron and manganese limits the efficiency of the biological carbon pump over large areas of the Southern Ocean. The importance of hydrothermal vents as a source of these micronutrients to the euphotic zone of the Southern Ocean is debated. Here we present full depth profiles of dissolved and total dissolvable trace metals in the remote eastern Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean (55–60° S, 89.1° W), providing evidence of enrichment of iron and manganese at depths of 2000–4000 m. These enhanced micronutrient concentrations were co-located with 3He enrichment, an indicator of hydrothermal fluid originating from ocean ridges. Modelled water trajectories revealed the understudied South East Pacific Rise and the Pacific Antarctic Ridge as likely source regions. Additionally, the trajectories demonstrate pathways for these Southern Ocean hydrothermal ridge-derived trace metals to reach the Southern Ocean surface mixed layer within two decades, potentially supporting a regular supply of micronutrients to fuel Southern Ocean primary production.

Publication Date

2024-08-02

Publication Title

Communications Earth and Environment

Volume

5

Issue

1

Acceptance Date

2024-07-15

Deposit Date

2024-07-01

Funding

A.J.B., C.A.B., N.J.W., K.P., H.J.V., A.M., S.J.U., C.M.M., S.O. and A.P.M. were supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funding for the CUSTARD project (NE/P021247/2; NE/P021336/1; NE/P021328/1). I.T. was supported by the ARIES DTP (NE/V009877/1). We would like to thank the NMF technicians and the RRS Discovery ship\u2019s captain, officers crew for their support during DY111. We would like to acknowledge and thank the parcels (https://oceanparcels.org/) developers, the JASMIN service (https://jasmin.ac.uk/), the ECCO Consortium and Ocean Data View developers (https://odv.awi.de) for their efforts. We would like to thank Alessandro Tagliabue and William Jenkins for their useful and informative discussions around our research.

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