AI Article Synopsis
- Atmospheric iron inputs are believed to influence ocean biogeochemistry, with desert dust contributing about 95% and combustion sources the remaining 5% to the global iron cycle.
- Human activities may significantly alter desert dust contributions, potentially affecting up to 50% of the natural input.
- The sources and speciation of bioavailable iron remain poorly understood, suggesting that human impacts on both iron and bioavailable iron deposition to oceans could be significant, though uncertainties persist.
Article Abstract
Atmospheric inputs of iron to the open ocean are hypothesized to modulate ocean biogeochemistry. This review presents an integration of available observations of atmospheric iron and iron deposition, and also covers bioavailable iron distributions. Methods for estimating temporal variability in ocean deposition over the recent past are reviewed. Desert dust iron is estimated to represent 95% of the global atmospheric iron cycle, and combustion sources of iron are responsible for the remaining 5%. Humans may be significantly perturbing desert dust (up to 50%). The sources of bioavailable iron are less well understood than those of iron, partly because we do not know what speciation of the iron is bioavailable. Bioavailable iron can derive from atmospheric processing of relatively insoluble desert dust iron or from direct emissions of soluble iron from combustion sources. These results imply that humans could be substantially impacting iron and bioavailable iron deposition to ocean regions, but there are large uncertainties in our understanding.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.marine.010908.163727 | DOI Listing |
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