Iron deficiency and phytoplankton growth in the equatorial Pacific

Several experiments were conducted in the equatorial Pacific at 140°W during the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study, equatorial Pacific, 1992 Time-series I (TS-I, 23 March–9 April), Time-series II (TS-II, 2–20 October) and FeLINE II cruises (10 March–14 April), to investigate the effects of added Fe on p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Deep-sea research. Part II, Topical studies in oceanography Topical studies in oceanography, 1996, Vol.43 (4), p.995-1015
Main Authors: Fitzwater, Steve E., Coale, Kenneth H., Gordon, R.Michael, Johnson, Kenneth S., Ondrusek, Michael E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Marine
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Summary:Several experiments were conducted in the equatorial Pacific at 140°W during the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study, equatorial Pacific, 1992 Time-series I (TS-I, 23 March–9 April), Time-series II (TS-II, 2–20 October) and FeLINE II cruises (10 March–14 April), to investigate the effects of added Fe on phytoplankton communities. Seven series of deckboard iron-enrichment experiments were performed, with levels of added Fe ranging from 0.13 to 1000 nM. Time-course measurements included nutrients, chlorophyll a and HPLC pigments. Results of these experiments showed that subnanomolar (sub-nM) additions of Fe increased net community specific growth rates, with resultant chlorophyll a increases and nutrient decreases. Community growth rates followed Michaelis-Menten type kinetics resulting in maximum rates of 0.99 doublings per day and a half-saturation constant of 0.12 nM iron. The dominant group responding to iron enrichment was diatoms.
ISSN:0967-0645
1879-0100
DOI:10.1016/0967-0645(96)00033-1