Hobart

Seminar abstract

Friday 23 March 2007, 11.30 am
CSIRO Auditorium, Hobart

Chris Measures
University of Hawaii

High resolution trace element analysis in the oceans: tracing the sources and cycling of iron in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

A new rosette-based system for sampling trace elements has allowed us to develop high density sections for dissolved Al and Fe in several ocean basins as part of the CLIVAR Repeat Hydrography-CO2 program.

Developing global sections of dissolved Fe in surface waters is important to allow modellers to incorporate the effects of Fe availability on biological production and carbon sequestration. One of the important vectors of Fe delivery to the surface ocean is dust deposition, which can be traced by dissolved Al in surface waters. Thus combined sections of these two elements can tell us much about the supply and systematics of this important micro-nutrient in the ocean. Results to date include a meridional section in the North Atlantic and a meridional and zonal section in the Pacific. The data sets have allowed us to resolve previously unidentified regions of elevated dust deposition as well as illuminating large-scale distributions of dissolved Fe in both the surface and subsurface waters.

The extension of this rosette-based sampling technique to other trace elements and isotopes to build a geochemical framework for understanding the contemporary and paleo-ocean is the goal of the new GEOTRACES program. I will discuss both the CLIVAR results and the status of GEOTRACES section planning.

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Location:
CSIRO = Marine Laboratories Auditorium, Castray Esplanade, Hobart

For further information, or to schedule a seminar, contact:
To schedule a seminar, contact:
Karen Wild-Allen, (Oceanographic seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5010
Piers Dunstan, (Biological seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
(03) 6232 5382
Annabel Ozimec (seminar administrator) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5462
Sandra Zicus, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (03) 6226 7888
Margaret Hazelwood, Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies (IASOS) University of Tasmania (03) 6226 2971

Last updated 16/03/07