Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T00:48:25.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An assessment of the role of the marginal ice zone in the carbon cycle of the Southern Ocean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2004

G. Savidge
Affiliation:
The Queen's University of Belfast, School of Biology and Biochemistry, Marine Laboratory, Portaferry, Co Down BT22 1PF, Northern Ireland, UK e-mail: [email protected]
J. Priddle
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environmental Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
L.C. Gilpin
Affiliation:
The Queen's University of Belfast, School of Biology and Biochemistry, Marine Laboratory, Portaferry, Co Down BT22 1PF, Northern Ireland, UK e-mail: [email protected]
U. Bathmann
Affiliation:
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Am Handelshafen 12, D-27570 Bremerhaven, Germany
E.J. Murphy
Affiliation:
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environmental Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
N.J.P. Owens
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Department of Marine Sciences and Coastal Management, The Ridley Building, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
R.T. Pollard
Affiliation:
Southampton Oceanography Centre, Empress Dock, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
D.R. Turner
Affiliation:
Göteborg University and Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Analytical and Marine Chemistry, S-41296 Göteborg, Sweden
C. Veth
Affiliation:
Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, P.O. Box 59, 1790 Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands
P. Boyd
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, 6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

Abstract

The dense phytoplankton blooms observed in earlier studies in the Southern Ocean Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ) may not be representative of all regions, so that some previous assessments of the overall importance of this system in total primary production may have been overestimated. Recent observations have shown that increased phytoplankton production may not always be associated with the retreating ice-edge, due to the unpredictability of meltwater-induced stability. Complex interactions between the MIZ and hydrographic fronts have also been indicated. A range of simple simulations, based on biomass inventories for the major biogeochemical systems in the Southern Ocean, show that the greater part of chlorophyll biomass is located in the extensive regions between the major fronts. Consideration of the fronts and the MIZ only, which we surmize may be the principal sites of export production, indicates that the MIZ is clearly the most important single feature. Even if the occurrence of MIZ blooms in the simulations is reduced dramatically, such blooms still appear to make a substantial contribution to production and, by implication, carbon export.

Type
Papers-Life Sciences and Oceanography
Copyright
© Antarctic Science Ltd 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)