Effect of natural iron fertilization on carbon sequestration in the Southern Ocean
Open accessAbstract
The availability of iron limits primary productivity and the associated uptake of carbon over large areas of the ocean. Iron thus plays an important role in the carbon cycle, and changes in its supply to the surface ocean may have had a significant effect on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over glacial-interglacial cycles. To date, the role of iron in carbon cycling has largely been assessed using short-term iron-addition experiments. It is difficult, however, to reliably assess the magnitude of carbon export to the ocean interior using such methods, and the short observational periods preclude extrapolation of the results to longer timescales. Here we report observations of a phytoplankton bloom induced by natural iron fertilization--an approach that offers the opportunity to overcome some of the limitations of short-term experiments. We found that a large phytoplankton bloom over the Kerguelen plateau in the Southern Ocean was sustained by the supply of iron and major nutrients to surface waters from iron-rich deep water below. The efficiency of fertilization, defined as the ratio of the carbon export to the amount of iron supplied, was at least ten times higher than previous estimates from short-term blooms induced by iron-addition experiments. This result sheds new light on the effect of long-term fertilization by iron and macronutrients on carbon sequestration, suggesting that changes in iron supply from below--as invoked in some palaeoclimatic and future climate change scenarios--may have a more significant effect on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations than previously thought.
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Microbes require iron for growth, and its chelation offers a route to bacteriostatic antibiotics or novel therapies.
“microbes require iron for growth, its presence may be limiting even at the scale of global CO2 fixation [1506-1509], its excess can in some circumstances [1510] correlate with infectivity or virulence (see above and e.g. [180,193,1493,1511-1531]), and its chelation in a form not available to bacteria offers a route to at least a bacteriostatic kind of antibiotic or to novel therapies based on the”
From Iron behaving badly: inappropriate iron chelation as a major contributor to the aetiology of vascular and other progressive inflammatory and degenerative diseases (2009) · cites this paper as [1507]
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- Authors
- Blain, S., Quéguiner, B., Armand, L., Belviso, S., Bombled, B., Bopp, L., Bowie, A., Brunet, C., Brussaard, C., Carlotti, F., Christaki, U., Corbière, A., Durand, I., Ebersbach, F., Fuda, J.-L., Garcia, N., Gerringa, L., Griffiths, B., Guigue, C., Guillerm, C., Jacquet, S., Jeandel, C., Laan, P., Lefèvre, D., Lo Monaco, C., Malits, A., Mosseri, J., Obernosterer, I., Park, Y.-H., Picheral, M., Pondaven, P., Remenyi, T., Sandroni, V., Sarthou, G., Savoye, N., Scouarnec, L., Souhaut, M., Thuiller, D., Timmermans, K., Trull, T., Uitz, J., van Beek, P., Veldhuis, M., Vincent, D., Viollier, E., Vong, L., & Wagener, T.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (FR)
- University of Tasmania (AU)
- Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NL)
- Université du littoral côte d'opale (FR)
- Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (FR)
- Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (AU)
- CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere (AU)
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE)
- Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche (FR)
- Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Blain, Stéphane
- ORCID
- Blain, Stéphane
- Quéguiner, Bernard
- Armand, Leanne
- Belviso, Sauveur
- Bopp, Laurent
- Bowie, Andrew
- Brussaard, Corina
- Carlotti, François
- Christaki, Urania
- Durand, Isabelle
- Gerringa, Loes
- Guigue, Catherine
- Jacquet, Stéphanie
- Jeandel, Catherine
- Lefèvre, Dominique
- Malits, Andrea
- Obernosterer, Ingrid
- Park, Young-Hyang
- Picheral, Marc
- Pondaven, Philippe
- Sarthou, Géraldine
- Savoye, Nicolas
- Timmermans, Klaas
- Trull, Thomas
- Uitz, Julia
- Vincent, Dorothée
- Wagener, Thibaut
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2007-04
- Volume
- 446
- Issue
- 7139
- Pages
- 1070-1074
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2102337248
- Cited by
- 795
- References
- 44
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 37 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 46 · 2021: 52 · 2020: 49 · 2019: 42 · 2018: 37 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 41 · 2015: 58 · 2014: 49 · 2013: 35 · 2012: 41
- FWCI
- 40.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hal.science
- Licence
- other-oa
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UTAS Research Repository (acceptedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- eCite Digital Repository (University of Tasmania) (submittedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar-und Meeresforschung (Alfred-Wegener-Institut) (submittedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion)
- LillOA (Université de Lille (University Of Lille)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Belgian Federal Science Policy Office
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Institut Polaire Français Paul Emile Victor
- Institut national des sciences de l'Univers
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine and coastal ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Aquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics
- Keywords
- carbon sequestration, Southern Ocean, phytoplankton blooms, iron limitation, upwelling, carbon export, fertilizer use efficiency, Kerguelen Plateau, atmospheric CO2, glacial-interglacial cycles, ocean carbon cycle, Marion Dufresne
- MeSH terms
- Chlorophyll A, Atmosphere, Carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Chlorophyll, Diffusion, Geography, Iron, Oceans and Seas, Partial Pressure, Phytoplankton, Seawater, Time Factors
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