Geochemical records are presented for five sediment cores from basins on the continental shelf of Mac. Robertson Land, East Antarctica. The cores contain 2–4 m thick sequences of hemipelagic, ...siliceous mud and ooze (SMO) deposited under seasonally open marine conditions. The inner and middle shelf SMO sequences are massive dark olive green material, whereas the outer shelf SMO sequences are dark olive material interspersed with light olive green layers ∼1–10 cm thick. The biogenic material is dominated by marine diatoms including Fragilariopsis curta, Fragilariopsis cylindrus, and Chaetoceros spp. in the dark‐colored SMO and Corethron criophilum in the light‐colored layers. Radiocarbon dates suggest that the cores provide continuous accumulation records extending from < 1 kyr before present (B.P.) back as far as 4–15 kyr B.P., with estimated accumulation rates of 0.07–5 mm yr−1. The three core records from the middle and outer shelf suggest six episodes of increased accumulation of biogenic material at ∼5.5 kyr B.P. (all three cores), 1, 2, and 6.2 kyr B.P. (two of the three cores), and 3.8 and 10.8 kyr B.P. (one core), most of which coincide with Corethron layers. We interpret these features as the result of enhanced diatom production over the outer shelf, possibly related to climatic warm periods. The absence of such features in the inner shelf core records is thought to reflect a relatively constant level of seasonal diatom production in adjacent waters maintained by a coastal polynya.
Aerosol deposition provides a major input of the essential micronutrient iron to the open ocean. A critical parameter with respect to biological availability is the proportion of aerosol iron that ...enters the oceanic dissolved iron pool – the so-called fractional solubility of aerosol iron (%FeS). Here we present a global-scale compilation of total aerosol iron loading (FeT) and estimated %FeS values for ~1100 samples collected over the open ocean, the coastal ocean, and some continental sites, including a new data set from the Atlantic Ocean. Despite the wide variety of methods that have been used to define 'soluble' aerosol iron, our global-scale compilation reveals a remarkably consistent trend in the fractional solubility of aerosol iron as a function of total aerosol iron loading, with the great bulk of the data defining an hyperbolic trend. The hyperbolic trends that we observe for both global- and regional-scale data are adequately described by a simple two-component mixing model, whereby the fractional solubility of iron in the bulk aerosol reflects the conservative mixing of 'lithogenic' mineral dust (high FeT and low %FeS) and non-lithogenic 'combustion' aerosols (low FeT and high %FeS). An increasing body of empirical and model-based evidence points to anthropogenic fuel combustion as the major source of these non-lithogenic 'combustion' aerosols, implying that human emissions are a major determinant of the fractional solubility of iron in marine aerosols. The robust global-scale relationship between %FeS and FeT provides a simple heuristic method for estimating aerosol iron solubility at the regional to global scale.
Aerosol deposition provides a major input of the essential micronutrient iron to the open ocean. A critical parameter with respect to bioavailability is the proportion of aerosol iron that enters the ...oceanic dissolved iron pool – the so-called fractional solubility of aerosol iron (%FeS). Here we present a global-scale compilation of total aerosol iron loading (FeT) and %FeS values for ~1100 samples collected over the open ocean, the coastal ocean, and some continental sites, including new data from the Atlantic Ocean. The global-scale compilation reveals a remarkably consistent trend in the fractional solubility of aerosol iron as a function of total aerosol iron loading, with the great bulk of the data falling along an inverse hyperbolic trend. The large dynamic range in %FeS (0-95%) varies with FeT in a manner similar to that identified for aerosols collected in the Sargasso Sea by Sedwick et al. (2007), who posit that the trend reflects near-conservative mixing between air masses that carry lithogenic mineral dust (with high FeT and low %FeS) and non-soil-dust aerosols such as anthropogenic combustion emissions (with low FeT and high %FeS), respectively. An increasing body of empirical evidence points to the importance of aerosol source and composition in determining the fractional solubility of aerosol iron, such that anthropogenic combustion emissions appear to play a critical role in determining this parameter in the bulk marine aerosol. The robust global-scale relationship between %FeS and FeT may provide a simple heuristic method for estimating aerosol iron solubility at the regional to global scale.
A young man developed bilateral, consecutive, optic neuropathy. His brother aad had a similar problem and recovered after one year. Mitochondrial DNA analysis showed that both had the 14484 mutation ...associated with Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy.