Hobart

Seminar Abstract

Friday 3 July, 11.30am (Tas time)
CSIRO Auditorium, Hobart

Véronique Schoemann
Oceanographer - Ecology of Aquatic Systems
Free University of Brussels
Belgium

Iron biogeochemistry in the Southern Ocean

The Ocean plays a critical role in regulating the Earth’s climate system by absorbing between 30 and 40% of annually emitted anthropogenic carbon dioxide. This CO2 absorption is controlled by physico-chemical and biological processes (biological and physical carbon pump). It has been demonstrated that iron (Fe) controls primary productivity and the planktonic community structure in more than 30% of the oceans including the Southern Ocean. Iron plays a crucial role in the biogeochemical cycles of C, N, P, Si and S, and influences the world’s climate.

The Southern Ocean plays a key role in the sequestration of atmospheric CO2, representing 30 to 50 % of the global ocean absorption. The large uncertainties existing in the estimates of the biogeochemical models for the present and the future contribution of the SO to the oceanic sink for atmospheric CO2 are partly due to insufficient description of the biogeochemistry of Fe and to a lack of knowledge on the impact of climate change on biogeochemical cycles.

The present talk will focus on the sources of Fe in the Southern Ocean with special emphasis on the role of sea ice as a source of Fe during ice melting, Fe bioavailability, its interactions with organic matter and its control on plankton communities and consequently on the biological carbon pump.

Seminar Recording

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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:
Clothilde Langlais, (Oceanographic seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5399
Natalie Kelly, (Biology/Modelling seminars) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research 0438 452 483
Jillian Enraght-Moony, (seminar administrator) CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (03) 6232 5320
Communications Manager, Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC (03) 6226 2265
Margaret Hazelwood, Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies (IASOS) University of Tasmania (03) 6226 2971

Last updated 21/07/09