ALBERT

Description: Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Philosophy and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution November 1980

Description: Suspended particulate matter was collected by sediment traps deployed in the Sargasso Sea (Site S2), the north equatorial Atlantic (Site E), the north equatorial Pacific (Site P), and the Panama Basin (STIE Site). Additional samples of suspended particles were obtained by in situ filtration at Site F., at the STIE Site, and in the Guatemala Basin. Concentrations of dissolved Th and Pa were determined by extraction onto manganese dioxide adsorbers at Site P, at a second site in the Sargasso Sea (Site D), at the STIE Site and in the Guatemala Basin. Sediment samples were obtained from cores taken near Sites E and P. Results have shown unequivocally that suspended particulate matter in the open ocean preferentially scavenges Th relative to Pa. This behavior could not have been predicted from the known physical chemistry of Th and Pa. Dissolved 230Th/231Pa activity ratios were 3-5 at Sites P and D and 3-8 at the STIE Site. In contrast, unsupported 230Th/231Pa ratios were 22-35 (average 29.7 for 7 samples) in sediment-trap samples from greater than 2000 m at Sites S2, E and P. Ratios were lower in particulate matter sampled at shallower depths. Particles filtered at 3600 m and 5000 m at Site E had ratios of 50 and 40. In contrast to the open ocean samples described above, samples collected by six sediment traps at depths of 667-3791 m in the Panama Basin had unsupported 230Th/231Pa ratios of 4-8, and the deepest samples had the lowest ratios. Fractionation of Th and Pa that was observed at the three open ocean sites either does not occur or occurs to a very limited extent in the Panama Basin. Particulate 230Th/231Pa ratios were negatively correlated with the concentration of suspended particles. However, variable scavenging rates, as indicated by variable particle concentration, do not completely control the ratio at which Th and Pa are scavenged from solution. Major biogenic and inorganic components of trapped material were found in approximately the same proportions in the STIE samples and in samples from Sites E and S2. Lower 230Th/231Pa ratios found in the STIE samples must therefore result from subtle changes in the chemical properties of the particles. Consideration of 230Th/23lPa ratios in several depositional environments indicates that no single factor controls the ratio at which Th and Pa are adsorbed from seawater. Fluxes of 210Th and 231Pa were less than their rates of production in the overlying water column in every trap at Sites S2, E, and P. In the Panama Basin, fluxes measured with the same traps were greater than or equal to their rates of production. These results are a strong indication that even extremely reactive elements such as Th and Pa are redistributed within the oceans. Redistribution occurs because variable scavenging rates in different environments set up horizontal concentration gradients. Horizontal mixing processes produce a net horizontal transport of Th and Pa from areas of 1ow scavenging rates to areas of high scavenging rates. Protactinium is redistributed to a greater extent than Th. Fluxes of 230Th can be used to set lower limits for horizonttal transport of Pa even when absolute trapping efficiencies of the sediment traps are not known. Less than 50% of the Pa produced at the open ocean sites is removed from the water column by scavenging to settling particles. The remainder is removed by horizontal transport to other environments. At Sites E and P, 230Th/231Pa ratios were identical in the deepest sediment trap sample and in surface sediments. However, 230Th/232Th and 231Pa/232Th ratios were 2.5 times higher in trapped particles than in surface sediments. The 230Th/232Th ratios were 5.5 times higher in particles filtered at 3600 m and 5000 m at Site E than in surface sediments. This observation is best explained by dissolution of most of the 230Th and 231Pa scavenged by settling particles during remineralization of labile biogenic phases. The behaviors of certain other radioisotopes were also studied. 232Th is present only in detrital mineral components of trapped material. Concentrations of 232Th in trapped particles correlate closely with Al and K, at ratios approaching that of average shale or crustal abundances at Site E and P and basalts at the STIE Site. High specifìc activities of 228Th and 239+240Pu were found in sediment trap samples throughout the water column at Sites E and P and in the Panama Basin. The dominant source of these isotopes is near the sea surface and also near the sea floor in the case of 228Th. Thus it appears that the bulk of the trapped material is recently derived from the sea surface where it incorporates these isotopes,with little loss during rapid transit through the water column. A bioauthigenic form of particulate uranium is produced at the sea surface and remineralized in the deep ocean along with its labile carrier phase(s). This flux of uranium to the deep ocean is 0.25-1.0 dpm/cm2103 years, which is insufficient to cause a measurable concentration gradient in the uranium distribution within the mixing time of the oceans. Increased concentrations and fluxes of particulate uranium were not found in the eastern equatorial North Pacific under areas of an intense oxygen minimum. Therefore, reduction of uranium to the tetravalent state with subsequent scavenging to settling particles in oxygen minima is not a mechanism removing uranium from the oceans.

Description: Financial support for parts of this work have come from many sources, including: National Science Foundation Grants OCE-7826318, OCE-7825724, and OCE-7727004; Department of Energy Contract EY-76-S-02-3566; a Cottrell Research Grant from the Research Corporation; the WHOI Ocean Industries Program; a fellowship from the WHOI Education Office, and the Paul Fye Fellowship

Description: Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Chemistry 170 (2015): 49-60, doi:10.1016/j.marchem.2015.01.006.

Description: The natural radionuclides 231Pa and 230Th are incorporated into the marine sediment record by scavenging, or adsorption to various particle types, via chemical reactions that are not fully understood. Because these isotopes have potential value in tracing several oceanographic processes, we investigate the nature of scavenging using trans-Atlantic measurements of dissolved (〈0.45 μm) and particulate (0.8-51 μm) 231Pa and 230Th, together with major particle composition. We find widespread impact of intense scavenging by authigenic Fe/Mn (hydr)oxides, in the form of hydrothermal particles emanating from the Mid-Atlantic ridge and particles resuspended from reducing conditions near the seafloor off the coast of West Africa. Biogenic opal was not found to be a significant scavenging phase for either element in this sample set, essentially because of its low abundance and small dynamic range at the studied sites. Distribution coefficients in shallow (〈 200 m) depths are anomalously low which suggests either the unexpected result of a low scavenging intensity for organic matter or that, in water masses containing abundant organic-rich particles, a greater percentage of radionuclides exist in the colloidal or complexed phase. In addition to particle concentration, the oceanic distribution of particle types likely plays a significant role in the ultimate distribution of sedimentary 230Th and 231Pa.

Description: Cruise management for GA03 was funded by the U. S. National Science Foundation to W. Jenkins (OCE-0926423), E. Boyle (OCE-0926204), and G. Cutter (OCE-0926092). Radionuclide studies were supported by NSF (OCE-0927064 to LDEO, OCE-0926860 to WHOI, OCE- 0927757 to URI, and OCE-0927754 to UMN). Additional support came from the European Research Council (278705) to LFR and the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship to SMV. Particle studies were supported by NSF OCE-0963026 to PJL.

Description: Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2014. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 116 (2015): 29-41, doi:10.1016/j.dsr2.2014.07.007.

Description: The long-lived uranium decay products 230Th and 231Pa are widely used as quantitative tracers of adsorption to sinking particles (scavenging) in the ocean by exploiting the principles of radioactive disequilibria. Because of their preservation in the Pleistocene sediment record and through largely untested assumptions about their chemical behavior in the water column, the two radionuclides have also been used as proxies for a variety of chemical fluxes in the past ocean. This includes the vertical flux of particulate matter to the seafloor, the lateral flux of insoluble elements to continental margins (boundary scavenging), and the southward flux of water out of the deep North Atlantic. In a section of unprecedented vertical and zonal resolution, the distributions of 230Th and 231Pa across the North Atlantic shed light on the marine cycling of these radionuclides and further inform their use as tracers of chemical flux. Enhanced scavenging intensities are observed in benthic layers of resuspended sediments on the eastern and western margins and in a hydrothermal plume emanating from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Boundary scavenging is clearly expressed in the water column along a transect between Mauritania and Cape Verde which is used to quantify a bias in sediment fluxes calculated using 230Th-normalization and to demonstrate enhanced 231Pa removal from the deep North Atlantic by this mechanism. The influence of deep ocean ventilation that leads to the southward export of 231Pa is apparent. The 231Pa/230Th ratio, however, predominantly reflects spatial variability in scavenging intensity, complicating its applicability as a proxy for the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation.

Description: Funding for ship time, sampling operations, and hydrographic 552 data was provided by the U. S. National Science Foundation to the US GEOTRACES North Atlantic Transect Management team of W. Jenkins (OCE-0926423), E. Boyle (OCE-0926204), and G. Cutter (OCE-0926092). Radionuclide studies were supported by NSF (OCE-0927064 to L-DEO, OCE-0926860 to WHOI, OCE-0927757 to URI, and OCE-0927754 to UMN). LFR was also supported by Marie Curie Reintegration Grant and the European Research Council.

Description: © The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Chemical Geology 493 (2018): 210-223, doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2018.05.040.

Description: The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2017 (IDP2017) is the second publicly available data product of the international GEOTRACES programme, and contains data measured and quality controlled before the end of 2016. The IDP2017 includes data from the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Southern and Indian oceans, with about twice the data volume of the previous IDP2014. For the first time, the IDP2017 contains data for a large suite of biogeochemical parameters as well as aerosol and rain data characterising atmospheric trace element and isotope (TEI) sources. The TEI data in the IDP2017 are quality controlled by careful assessment of intercalibration results and multi-laboratory data comparisons at crossover stations. The IDP2017 consists of two parts: (1) a compilation of digital data for more than 450 TEIs as well as standard hydrographic parameters, and (2) the eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas providing an on-line atlas that includes more than 590 section plots and 130 animated 3D scenes. The digital data are provided in several formats, including ASCII, Excel spreadsheet, netCDF, and Ocean Data View collection. Users can download the full data packages or make their own custom selections with a new on-line data extraction service. In addition to the actual data values, the IDP2017 also contains data quality flags and 1-σ data error values where available. Quality flags and error values are useful for data filtering and for statistical analysis. Metadata about data originators, analytical methods and original publications related to the data are linked in an easily accessible way. The eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas is the visual representation of the IDP2017 as section plots and rotating 3D scenes. The basin-wide 3D scenes combine data from many cruises and provide quick overviews of large-scale tracer distributions. These 3D scenes provide geographical and bathymetric context that is crucial for the interpretation and assessment of tracer plumes near ocean margins or along ridges. The IDP2017 is the result of a truly international effort involving 326 researchers from 25 countries. This publication provides the critical reference for unpublished data, as well as for studies that make use of a large cross-section of data from the IDP2017. This article is part of a special issue entitled: Conway GEOTRACES - edited by Tim M. Conway, Tristan Horner, Yves Plancherel, and Aridane G. González.

Description: We gratefully acknowledge financial support by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) through grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation, including grants OCE-0608600, OCE-0938349, OCE-1243377, and OCE-1546580. Financial support was also provided by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Ministry of Earth Science of India, the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, l'Université Paul Sabatier de Toulouse, the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées Toulouse, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Kiel Excellence Cluster The Future Ocean, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, The University of Tokyo, The University of British Columbia, The Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, the GEOMAR-Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, and the Alfred Wegener Institute.

Description: Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2022. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles 36(6), (2022): e2022GB007330, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022gb007330.

Description: Processes controlling dissolved barium (dBa) were investigated along the GEOTRACES GA03 North Atlantic and GP16 Eastern Tropical Pacific transects, which traversed similar physical and biogeochemical provinces. Dissolved Ba concentrations are lowest in surface waters (∼35–50 nmol kg−1) and increase to 70–80 and 140–150 nmol kg−1 in deep waters of the Atlantic and Pacific transects, respectively. Using water mass mixing models, we estimate conservative mixing that accounts for most of dBa variability in both transects. To examine nonconservative processes, particulate excess Ba (pBaxs) formation and dissolution rates were tracked by normalizing particulate excess 230Th activities. Th-normalized pBaxs fluxes, with barite as the likely phase, have subsurface maxima in the top 1,000 m (∼100–200 μmol m−2 year−1 average) in both basins. Barite precipitation depletes dBa within oxygen minimum zones from concentrations predicted by water mass mixing, whereas inputs from continental margins, particle dissolution in the water column, and benthic diffusive flux raise dBa above predications. Average pBaxs burial efficiencies along GA03 and GP16 are ∼37% and 17%–100%, respectively, and do not seem to be predicated on barite saturation indices in the overlying water column. Using published values, we reevaluate the global freshwater dBa river input as 6.6 ± 3.9 Gmol year−1. Estuarine mixing processes may add another 3–13 Gmol year−1. Dissolved Ba inputs from broad shallow continental margins, previously unaccounted for in global marine summaries, are substantial (∼17 Gmol year−1), exceeding terrestrial freshwater inputs. Revising river and shelf dBa inputs may help bring the marine Ba isotope budget more into balance.

Description: The International GEOTRACES Programme is possible in part thanks to the support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant OCE-1840868) to the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR). This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF OCE-0927951, NSF OCE-1137851, NSF OCE-1261214, and NSF OCE-1925503 to A. M. Shiller; NSF OCE-1829563 to R. F. Anderson; NSF OCE-0927064 and NSF OCE-1233688 to R. F. Anderson and M. Q. Fleisher; NSF OCE-0927754 to R. Lawrence Edwards; NSF OCE-1233903 to R. Lawrence Edwards and H. Cheng; NSF OCE-0926860 to L. F. Robinson; NSF OCE-0963026 and NSF OCE-1518110 to P. J. Lam; and NSF OCE-1232814 to B. S. Twining.

Description: © The Author(s), 2015. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Marine Chemistry 177 (2015): 1-8, doi:10.1016/j.marchem.2015.04.005.

Description: The GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product 2014 (IDP2014) is the first publicly available data product of the international GEOTRACES programme, and contains data measured and quality controlled before the end of 2013. It consists of two parts: (1) a compilation of digital data for more than 200 trace elements and isotopes (TEIs) as well as classical hydrographic parameters, and (2) the eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas providing a strongly inter-linked on-line atlas including more than 300 section plots and 90 animated 3D scenes. The IDP2014 covers the Atlantic, Arctic, and Indian oceans, exhibiting highest data density in the Atlantic. The TEI data in the IDP2014 are quality controlled by careful assessment of intercalibration results and multi-laboratory data comparisons at cross-over stations. The digital data are provided in several formats, including ASCII spreadsheet, Excel spreadsheet, netCDF, and Ocean Data View collection. In addition to the actual data values the IDP2014 also contains data quality flags and 1-σ data error values where available. Quality flags and error values are useful for data filtering. Metadata about data originators, analytical methods and original publications related to the data are linked to the data in an easily accessible way. The eGEOTRACES Electronic Atlas is the visual representation of the IDP2014 data providing section plots and a new kind of animated 3D scenes. The basin-wide 3D scenes allow for viewing of data from many cruises at the same time, thereby providing quick overviews of large-scale tracer distributions. In addition, the 3D scenes provide geographical and bathymetric context that is crucial for the interpretation and assessment of observed tracer plumes, as well as for making inferences about controlling processes.

Description: We gratefully acknowledge financial support by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) through grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation, including grants OCE-0608600, OCE-0938349, and OCE-1243377. Financial support was also provided by the UK Natural Environment Research Council, the Ministry of Earth Science of India, the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, l'Université Paul Sabatier de Toulouse, the Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées Toulouse, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Kiel Excellence Cluster The Future Ocean, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, The University of Tokyo, The University of British Columbia, The Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, the GEOMAR-Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, and the Alfred Wegener Institute.

Description: © The Author(s), 2016. This is the author's version of the work and is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 113 (2016): 57-79, doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2016.03.008.

Description: Thorium is a highly particle-reactive element that possesses different measurable radio-isotopes in seawater, with well-constrained production rates and very distinct half-lives. As a result, Th has emerged as a key tracer for the cycling of marine particles and of their chemical constituents, including particulate organic carbon. Here two different versions of a model of Th and particle cycling in the ocean are tested using an unprecedented data set from station GT11-22 of the U.S. GEOTRACES North Atlantic Section: (i) 21 228;230;234Th activities of dissolved and particulate fractions, (ii) 228Ra activities, (iii) 234;238U activities estimated from salinity data and an assumed 234U/238U ratio, and (iv) particle concentrations, below a depth of 125 m. The two model versions assume a single class of particles but rely on different assumptions about the rate parameters for sorption reactions and particle processes: a first version (V1) assumes vertically uniform parameters (a popular description), whereas the second (V2) does not. Both versions are tested by fitting to the GT11-22 data using generalized nonlinear least squares and by analyzing residuals normalized to the data errors. We find that model V2 displays a significantly better fit to the data than model V1. Thus, the mere allowance of vertical variations in the rate parameters can lead to a significantly better fit to the data, without the need to modify the structure or add any new processes to the model. To understand how the better fit is achieved we consider two parameters, K = k1=(k-1 + β-1) and K/P, where k1 is the adsorption rate constant, k-1 the desorption rate constant, β-1 the remineralization rate constant, and P the particle concentration. We find that the rate constant ratio K is large (≥0.2) in the upper 1000 m and decreases to a nearly uniform value of ca. 0.12 below 2000 m, implying that the specific rate at which Th attaches to particles relative to that at which it is released from particles is higher in the upper ocean than in the deep ocean. In contrast, K/P increases with depth below 500 m. The parameters K and K/P display significant positive and negative monotonic relationship with P, respectively, which is collectively consistent with a particle concentration effect.

Description: We acknowledge the U.S. National Science Foundation for providing funding for this study (grant OCE-1232578) and for U.S. GEOTRACES North Atlantic section ship time, sampling, and data analysis.

Description: 2017-03-31

Description: © The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Costa, K. M., Hayes, C. T., Anderson, R. F., Pavia, F. J., Bausch, A., Deng, F., Dutay, J., Geibert, W., Heinze, C., Henderson, G., Hillaire-Marcel, C., Hoffmann, S., Jaccard, S. L., Jacobel, A. W., Kienast, S. S., Kipp, L., Lerner, P., Lippold, J., Lund, D., Marcantonio, F., McGee, D., McManus, J. F., Mekik, F., Middleton, J. L., Missiaen, L., Not, C., Pichat, S., Robinson, L. F., Rowland, G. H., Roy-Barman, M., Alessandro, Torfstein, A., Winckler, G., & Zhou, Y. 230 Th normalization: new insights on an essential tool for quantifying sedimentary fluxes in the modern and quaternary ocean. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 35(2), (2020): e2019PA003820, doi:10.1029/2019PA003820.

Description: 230Th normalization is a valuable paleoceanographic tool for reconstructing high‐resolution sediment fluxes during the late Pleistocene (last ~500,000 years). As its application has expanded to ever more diverse marine environments, the nuances of 230Th systematics, with regard to particle type, particle size, lateral advective/diffusive redistribution, and other processes, have emerged. We synthesized over 1000 sedimentary records of 230Th from across the global ocean at two time slices, the late Holocene (0–5,000 years ago, or 0–5 ka) and the Last Glacial Maximum (18.5–23.5 ka), and investigated the spatial structure of 230Th‐normalized mass fluxes. On a global scale, sedimentary mass fluxes were significantly higher during the Last Glacial Maximum (1.79–2.17 g/cm2kyr, 95% confidence) relative to the Holocene (1.48–1.68 g/cm2kyr, 95% confidence). We then examined the potential confounding influences of boundary scavenging, nepheloid layers, hydrothermal scavenging, size‐dependent sediment fractionation, and carbonate dissolution on the efficacy of 230Th as a constant flux proxy. Anomalous 230Th behavior is sometimes observed proximal to hydrothermal ridges and in continental margins where high particle fluxes and steep continental slopes can lead to the combined effects of boundary scavenging and nepheloid interference. Notwithstanding these limitations, we found that 230Th normalization is a robust tool for determining sediment mass accumulation rates in the majority of pelagic marine settings (〉1,000 m water depth).

Description: We thank Zanna Chase and one anonymous reviewer for valuable feedback. K. M. C. was supported by a Postdoctoral Scholarship at WHOI. L. M. acknowledges funding from the Australian Research Council grant DP180100048. The contribution of C. T. H., J. F. M., and R. F. A. were supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation (US‐NSF). G. H. R. was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grant NE/L002434/1). S. L. J. acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (grants PP002P2_144811 and PP00P2_172915). This study was supported by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) project, which in turn received support from the Swiss Academy of Sciences and the US‐NSF. This work grew out of a 2018 workshop in Aix‐Marseille, France, funded by PAGES, GEOTRACES, SCOR, US‐NSF, Aix‐Marseille Université, and John Cantle Scientific. All data are publicly available as supporting information to this document and on the National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) at https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/28791.

Description: Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles 32(12), (2019): 1738-1758, doi:10.1029/2018GB005994.

Description: Sinking particles strongly regulate the distribution of reactive chemical substances in the ocean, including particulate organic carbon and other elements (e.g., P, Cd, Mn, Cu, Co, Fe, Al, and 232Th). Yet, the sinking fluxes of trace elements have not been well described in the global ocean. The U.S. GEOTRACES campaign in the North Atlantic (GA03) offers the first data set in which the sinking flux of carbon and trace elements can be derived using four different radionuclide pairs (238U:234Th ;210Pb:210Po; 228Ra:228Th; and 234U:230Th) at stations co‐located with sediment trap fluxes for comparison. Particulate organic carbon, particulate P, and particulate Cd fluxes all decrease sharply with depth below the euphotic zone. Particulate Mn, Cu, and Co flux profiles display mixed behavior, some cases reflecting biotic remineralization, and other cases showing increased flux with depth. The latter may be related to either lateral input of lithogenic material or increased scavenging onto particles. Lastly, particulate Fe fluxes resemble fluxes of Al and 232Th, which all have increasing flux with depth, indicating a dominance of lithogenic flux at depth by resuspended sediment transported laterally to the study site. In comparing flux estimates derived using different isotope pairs, differences result from different timescales of integration and particle size fractionation effects. The range in flux estimates produced by different methods provides a robust constraint on the true removal fluxes, taking into consideration the independent uncertainties associated with each method. These estimates will be valuable targets for biogeochemical modeling and may also offer insight into particle sinking processes.

Description: This study grew out of a synthesis workshop at the Lamont‐Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in August 2016. This workshop was sponsored by the U.S. GEOTRACES Project Office (NSF 1536294) and the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCP) Project Office (NSF 1558412 and NASA NNX17AB17G). The U.S. National Science Foundation supported all of the analytical work on GA03. Kuanbo Zhou measured 228Th in the large size class particles (NSF 0925158 to WHOI). NSF 1061128 to Stony Brook University supported the BaRFlux project, for which Chistina Heilbrun is acknowledged for laboratory and field work. The lead author acknowledges support from a start‐up grant from the University of Southern Mississippi. Two anonymous reviewers are thanked for their constructive comments. All GEOTRACES GA03 data used in this study are accessible through the Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (http://data.bco‐dmo.org/jg/dir/BCO/GEOTRACES/NorthAtlanticTransect/), and derived parameters are reported in the supporting information.

Description: 2019-05-22

Description: © The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Black, E. E., Kienast, S. S., Lemaitre, N., Lam, P. J., Anderson, R. F., Planquette, H., Planchon, F., & Buesseler, K. O. Ironing out Fe residence time in the dynamic upper ocean. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 34(9), (2020): e2020GB006592, doi:10.1029/2020GB006592.

Description: Although iron availability has been shown to limit ocean productivity and influence marine carbon cycling, the rates of processes driving iron's removal and retention in the upper ocean are poorly constrained. Using 234Th‐ and sediment‐trap data, most of which were collected through international GEOTRACES efforts, we perform an unprecedented observation‐based assessment of iron export from and residence time in the upper ocean. The majority of these new residence time estimates for total iron in the surface ocean (0–250 m) fall between 10 and 100 days. The upper ocean residence time of dissolved iron, on the other hand, varies and cycles on sub‐annual to annual timescales. Collectively, these residence times are shorter than previously thought, and the rates and timescales presented here will contribute to ongoing efforts to integrate iron into global biogeochemical models predicting climate and carbon dioxide sequestration in the ocean in the 21st century and beyond.

Description: We would like to thank S. Albani for providing the dust model results (Community Atmosphere Model, C4fn) and the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. The U.S. GEOTRACES work was supported by the National Science Foundation (OCE‐1232669 and OCE‐1518110) and E. Black was also funded by a NASA Earth and Space Science Graduate Fellowship (NNX13AP31H) and the Ocean Frontier Institute. The GEOVIDE work was funded by the Flanders Research Foundation (G071512N), the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (SRP‐2), the French ANR Blanc GEOVIDE (ANR‐13‐BS06‐0014), ANR RPDOC BITMAP (ANR‐12‐PDOC‐0025‐01), IFREMER, CNRS‐INSU (programme LEFE), INSU OPTIMISP, and Labex‐Mer (ANR‐10‐LABX‐19).