Atmospheric
deposition of mineral dust aerosols supplies the essential nutrient of iron to
the ocean. However, only the readily soluble
iron is available to biological uptake while the insoluble iron precipitates to
the ocean bottom. Here we present a
global model simulation of Aeolian iron input to the ocean, considering
hematite dissolution in mineral dust aerosols catalyzed by nitric and sulfuric
acids. Our model suggests that atmospheric
deposition of soluble iron to the oceans is much larger than previous model
results in high nitrate low chlorophyll (HNLC) regions.
Author: S.-M. Fan, W. J. Moxim, and H. Levy II (songmiao dot fan at noaa dot gov)
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