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Letter

Nature Geoscience 1, 439–443 (1 July 2008) | doi:10.1038/ngeo232

Phosphorus cycling in the North and South Atlantic Ocean subtropical gyres

Rhiannon L. Mather , Sarah E. Reynolds , George A. Wolff , Richard G. Williams , Sinhue Torres-Valdes , E. Malcolm S. Woodward , Angela Landolfi , Xi Pan , Richard Sanders & Eric P. Achterberg

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 dust, is depleted in the nutrient phosphate, possibly as a result of iron-enhanced nitrogen fixation.