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Phosphorus cycling in the North and South Atlantic Ocean subtropical gyres

Nature Geoscience volume 1, pages 439–443 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Despite similar physical properties, the Northern and Southern Atlantic subtropical gyres have different biogeochemical regimes. The Northern subtropical gyre, which is subject to iron deposition from Saharan dust1, is depleted in the nutrient phosphate, possibly as a result of iron-enhanced nitrogen fixation2. Although phosphate depleted, rates of carbon fixation in the euphotic zone of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre are comparable to those of the South Atlantic subtropical gyre3, which is not phosphate limited. Here we use the activity of the phosphorus-specific enzyme alkaline phosphatase to show potentially enhanced utilization of dissolved organic phosphorus occurring over much of the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. We find that during the boreal spring up to 30% of primary production in the North Atlantic gyre is supported by dissolved organic phosphorus. Our diagnostics and composite map of the surface distribution of dissolved organic phosphorus in the subtropical Atlantic Ocean reveal shorter residence times in the North Atlantic gyre than the South Atlantic gyre. We interpret the asymmetry of dissolved organic phosphorus cycling in the two gyres as a consequence of enhanced nitrogen fixation in the North Atlantic Ocean4, which forces the system towards phosphorus limitation. We suggest that dissolved organic phosphorus utilization may contribute to primary production in other phosphorus-limited ocean settings as well.

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Figure 1: Phosphorus data from cruises AMT10 (April 2000), D279 (April 2004), AMT14 (May 2004), AMT15 (Oct 2004), CD171 (May 2005), AMT16 (June 2005) and AMT17 (Nov 2005).
Figure 2: Biogeochemical results.
Figure 3: Seasonal data for the NASG and the SASG.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Poulton for the analysis of chlorophyll a, M. Zubkov for the determination of bacterial numbers and K. Chamberlain, T. Lesworth and M. Stinchcombe for help with the analysis of inorganic and organic nutrients. We are grateful to the office, crew and technical support of RRS J. C. Ross, RRS Discovery and RRS C. Darwin. This study was supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council through the Atlantic Meridional Transect consortium (NER/O/S/2001/00680) and the 36∘ N consortium (NER/O/S/2003/00625).

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Author notes

  1. Sarah E. Reynolds & Angela Landolfi

    Present address: Present address: Department of Ocean, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Old Dominion University, 4600 Elkhorn Avenue, Norfolk, Virginia, USA (S.E.R.); Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften, Marine Biogeochemical Modelling, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, D-24105 Kiel, Germany (A.L.),

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Liverpool, 4 Brownlow Street, Liverpool, L69 3GP, UK

    Rhiannon L. Mather, Sarah E. Reynolds, George A. Wolff & Richard G. Williams

  2. National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton Waterfront Campus, European Way, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK

    Sinhue Torres-Valdes, Angela Landolfi, Xi Pan, Richard Sanders & Eric P. Achterberg

  3. Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth, PL1 3DH, UK

    E. Malcolm S. Woodward

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Contributions

R.L.M., S.E.R., G.A.W. and R.G.W wrote the paper. G.A.W. and R.G.W. designed the research programme. R.L.M., S.E.R., S.T.V., E.M.S.W., A.L., X.P., and R.S. carried out the field work. R.S. and E.P.A. oversaw the analysis of the organic nutrients.

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Correspondence to George A. Wolff.

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Supplementary tables S1-S7 (PDF 130 kb)

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Mather, R., Reynolds, S., Wolff, G. et al. Phosphorus cycling in the North and South Atlantic Ocean subtropical gyres. Nature Geosci 1, 439–443 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo232

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