Estimating Atmospheric Fe Deposition to the Remote Ocean: the Problems Posed by Solubility Control

John Edmond's scientific career was dedicated to exploiting the tracer properties of chemical distributions in the ocean and using these to further our understanding of Earth and ocean processes. He realised that since chemical distributions result from geological, physical and biological processes, their interpretation is a powerful tool that can be used to explain many disparate elements of Earth sciences. In addition, the natural integrating power of chemical distributions over long time scales provides a unique opportunity to temporally average high frequency processes. The ability to apply these tools to current problems requires development and application of methodology that can be used over large temporal and spatial scales. John helped foster the development of real time trace element determinations at sea. A particularly good example of the results that this work has produced is using surface water trace element distributions to develop an understanding of the role that atmospheric deposition processes play in biogeochemical cycles. The partial dissolution of atmospheric dust in surface waters leaves a chemical wake that can be used to determine the magnitude and locus of atmospheric deposition events. In particular, dissolved aluminium concentrations in surface waters appear to be largely driven by atmospheric processes. Thus, modeling of the distribution of this element is being used to develop an understanding of atmospheric deposition processes in oceanic regions that are not suitable for direct sampling. When used in conjunction with surface water distributions of iron, the role of atmospheric deposition for this biologically important element can also be studied. However, the few existing data sets indicate that current models of iron deposition to the surface ocean, which simply apply a fixed fractional solubility of iron in dust, are unlikely to succeed, since the absolute solubility of iron limits the addition of this element to the surface ocean. Until sufficient surface ocean trace element data has been gathered to evaluate the solubility, speciation and temporal behaviour of atmospheric deposited iron in surface waters, it is unlikely that modeling of these processes will provide much useful information. Once such data has been gathered, the resultant data sets can provide powerful constraints on future modeling efforts aimed at predicting Earth system responses to changed climatic conditions.